Breakthrough Entertainer: ‘Snowfall’ Star Damson Idris
From the Staff of the Bakersfield News Observer
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News Observer Bakersfield
Volume 48 Number 16
Serving Kern County for Over 48 Years
Observer Group Newspapers of Southern California
Memory , Movement & Momentum
Kwanzaa Propelling Culture Forward By Bakari Sanyu Director, The Sankofa Collective A community-based cultural education organization What African heritage tradition functions to renew and strengthen the intertwined, cherished, and indivisible values of family, community, and culture in a rich and meaningful way? Kwanzaa, celebrated from December 26th to January 1st, provides a designated time to collectively celebrate our ancestral origin and share the beauty of African culture, its values, insights, and instructive practices so we can deeply rejuvenate our lives and community for mutual flourishing and benefit. The tradition functions to deeply rejuvenate our cultural memory around the necessity, urgency, and priority of continuing, maintaining and expanding our collective uplift Movement, so we can propel the momentum of our actions and deeds forward. The Kwanzaa season serves as a vehicle for people of African descent to gather and express their ethnicity in the richness and festive cultural ambiance of ethnic art, dance, poetry, folktales, music, cuisine, literature and the beauty of heritage clothing, jewelry, heirlooms, hairstyles, and creative productions. The Kwanzaa cultural tradition was founded and framed by Dr. Maulana Karenga in Los Angeles, California within the midst and context of the 1960’s African American Freedom Movement. And as the creator of Kwanzaa, Dr. Maulana Karenga is the author of the definitive text on its origins, principles, practices, symbols and meaning. Take time to learn and relearn more information about Kwanzaa and then share the beauty of its values, insights, and instructive practices. The book is readily available at www. sankorepress.com and a comprehensive reading will provide considerable detailed explanations. The name Kwanzaa comes from the Kiswahili phrase, matunda ya kwanza, where matunda means “fruits”, and ya kwanza means “first”. Dr. Karenga added the extra “a” to the Kiswahili word kwanza, to distinguish the cultural tradition’s name. The language of Kiswahili was chosen for the name Kwanzaa and all accompanying phrases, because it is a widespread trade language used by multiple African countries. And the year-end observance of Kwanzaa occurs because this
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Wednesday, December 22, 2021
Mural on University Campus Defaced by Vandals ST. LOUIS (AP) – Washington University officials said a mural on campus that depicts prominent Black people was vandalized this weekend with racist symbols. Four top university officials, including Chancellor Andrew Martin, sent a letter to students and staff Sunday about the vandalism. “This is horrifying and distressing. We’re shocked and saddened by this hateful act on our campus,” they wrote in the letter. University officials said there are cameras in the area near the mural that is painted on the wall of a pedestrian tunnel that connects several dorms to the rest of campus. They said they hope investigators will be able to identify the people who defaced the mural. Local artists painted the mural before the start of fall classes in 2020. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that several of the faces on the mural were painted white and stamped with the logo of a white supremacist group.
Indiana Bank Settles Housing Discrimination Lawsuit
cultural expression is derived from the African continent’s traditional year-end agricultural harvest celebrations. Since the 1960’s African American families and communities
across the USA, have presented Kwanzaa and the celebration has spread all around the world. Kwanzaa is now evident in North, Central and South America, throughout the Caribbean Islands, Europe, Asia and Africa and the celebration is observed worldwide by over 60 million people of African descent. This beautiful cultural model of possibility and cultural excellence created by Dr. Maulana Karenga reminds our communities that we have the have the capacity, duty, and wherewithal to change the prevailing conditions of our lives with cultural memory, if we diligently practice cultural values, focused priorities, commitment, and continuous empowered action. Kwanzaa serves to restore and
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Feds, State Take Steps to Ease Burden on Student Loans Antonio Ray Harvey California Black Media Lillian Lewis earned multiple degrees from California State University Sacramento (also known as Sac State University). Lewis said, before the pandemic began, paying down the high student loan debt she accrued to cover her tuition and living expenses while in school put a strain on her monthly budget. Those arrears (“in the thousands”) with growing interest made it difficult for her to make ends meet. But last month, Lewis and about 30,000 other American student loan borrowers across the United States received some unanticipated good news. The Biden administration announced a $2 billion relief program that expanded the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. “It took a huge load off my finances and will improve my credit, which was not bad anyway,” said Lewis, who works in social work and now lives in Las Vegas. “It was taking forever to pay off. Now, I don’t have to worry anymore.” The PSLF wipes out student loan debt for borrowers who commit to public service careers or work full-time for public or nonprofit organizations. The relief program launched about three months before the federal government lifts a freeze on student loan payments on Jan. 31, 2022. In March 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic gripped the country, the feds paused monthly payments for Americans who owe student loans, stopped all collection activity, and applied a temporary zero-interest rate to all debt. In California, there are thousands of African Americans like Lewis: saddled with huge balances stemming from loans they took to pay for tuition not covered by scholarships, living arrangements, textbooks, and other expenses. In November, highlighting one borrower’s story, United States Education Secretary Miguel Cardona tweeted, “we are just getting started” to provide student debt relief for millions of Americans. According to a report by California Student Loan and Debt Service Review Workgroup (CSLDSRW) -- established under the state’s Budget Act of 2020 -- and the National Center for Education Statistic (NCES), 84.9% of Blacks who earned bachelor’s degrees from 2015 to 2016 owed an average of $34,000 upon graduation. CSLDSRW’s study also found that Californians of color default more on their student loans. Neighborhoods in the San Francisco Bay Area with the largest percentages of Black and Latino residents had 19.9% of borrowers in delinquency and 15 % in default. In Los Angeles, borrowers living in ZIP codes with high minority populations had double the amount of default rates than borrowers in ZIP codes that are predominantly White. U.S. Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (D-Massachusetts) told the media at an event hosted by the American Federations of Teachers earlier this year that she, too, had defaulted on her student loans. Black women carry 20% more in student debt than White women, according to the American Association of University Women, an advocacy faction that fights for fair pay and economic opportunities for women. “Like 85% of Black students, I had to borrow; and like so many of those students, I had also defaulted on those loans. We know that Black and Brown students are five times more likely to default for those loans than our White counterparts,” said
Take One!
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – An Indiana-based bank has agreed to direct more housing loans to majorityBlack neighborhoods in settling a federal discrimination lawsuit filed by a fair housing organization. Evansville-based Old National Bank faced allegations in the Fair Housing Center of Central Indiana’s October lawsuit that the bank engaged in housing discrimination against Blacks in Indianapolis in violation of the Fair Housing Act. The settlement agreement calls for Old National to originate more than $27 million in loans to qualified Black applicants and contribute more than $3 million to create programs to help Black home seekers secure mortgages and to invest in majority-Black neighborhoods, the Indianapolis Business Journal reported. Fair Housing Center executive director Any Nelson said the agreement will provide more mortgage opportunities, bank branches, neighborhood stabilization grants and fair lending education. Old National denied any wrongdoing in the settlement agreement and said it will work toward strengthening underserved and low-income neighborhoods. Under the terms of the settlement, Old National will invest a minimum of $1.1 million into a loan subsidy program which will provide borrowers with up to $10,000 to help cover down payments, mortgage insurance premiums and closing costs.
McDonald’s to Pay Black Store Owner $33.5M to End Bias Suit
Congresswomen Ayanna Pressley speaking about cancellation of student debt Dec 5, 2021. (Courtesy Photo)
CLEVELAND (AP) – McDonald’s will pay $33.5 million to a former baseball player who owns multiple franchises to end a lawsuit he brought against the company accusing it of racial discrimination. Herb Washington, who is Black, owned more than a dozen restaurants in Ohio and Pennsylvania when he filed a lawsuit in February that said the company has treated white owners more favorably and denied him the opportunity to buy restaurants in more affluent communities. McDonald’s said in a statement Thursday that the amount it was paying Washington for 13 franchises was “no more than what we deem a fair price for the value of the restaurants,” Cleveland.com reported. “While we were confident in the strength of our case, this resolution aligns with McDonald’s values and enables us to continue focusing on our commitments to the communities that we serve,” the company said, adding that “discrimination has no place at McDonald’s.” Washington agreed to drop the lawsuit and to no longer be a franchisee as part of the settlement agreement. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Youngstown said McDonald’s sought to steer Washington toward stores located in poorer neighborhoods and that “Black owners average around $700,000 less in annual sales per store than white owners.” The news outlet reached out to attorneys for Washington in Cleveland and New Orleans for comment. Last week, the company announced it would spend $250 million over five years to recruit and support franchise owners from minority communities, the news outlet reported. In September 2020, more than 50 Black former franchise owners sued the company with similar allegations. That suit said the Black owners were offered to buy stores in poor areas that had higher security and insurance costs and were denied things like rent assistance during renovations that they said white owners were given. Washington is a former Michigan State University track star who played for parts of two seasons with the Oakland Athletics in the mid-1970s.