Los Angeles News Observer 5.13.21 4C

Los Angeles Rams Mix It Up on the Draft

Lloyd Price, Singer and Early Rock Influence, Dies at the Age of 88

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Los Angeles

Volume 36 Number 26

Serving Los Angeles County for Over 36 Years

Observer Group Newspapers of Southern California

CA Reparations Effort Governor Appoints Five Members to Task Force

(top: Lisa Holder, Rev. Amos Brown, bottom: Don Tamaki, Dr. Cheryl Grills and Dr. Jovan Scott Lewis)

Bo Tefu California Black Media Last week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced his allotment of five of nine representatives to the nation’s first-ever Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans. The state task force is being assembled to meet the mandate of the Assembly Bill (AB) 3121, a landmark legislation Gov. Newsom signed into law last September 2020 that aims to promote racial justice and equity.

Earlier this year, Senate Pro Tem Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) appointed two other members to the task force: Sen. Steve Bradford (D-Gardena) and San Diego city Councilmember Monica Montgomery Steppe. Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood) is tasked with appointing the two remaining members.

AB 3121, which was authored by California Secretary of State Shirley Weber when she served in the state Assembly, mandates that the task force must submit written reports, “with a special consideration for African Americans who are descendants of persons enslaved in the United States.”

The nine task force members will study the deeprooted legacy of slavery and the expressions of systematic racism African Americans have encountered over centuries in the United States. The legislation also calls for scholars assembled by the Regents of the University of California to

draft a research proposal analyze how the state and country have benefitted from slavery.

“California is leading the nation, in a bipartisan way, on the issue of reparations and racial justice, which is a discussion that is long overdue and deserves our utmost attention,” Newsom said.

Newsom selected an interdisciplinary team of academics, community leaders, and lawyers to spearhead the state’s effort.

He said each member of the task force has, “an expansive breadth of knowledge, experiences and understanding of issues impacting the African American community is the next step in our commitment as a state to build a California for all.”

The Black Leadership Council (BLC), a statewide organization of African American leaders in California, says it is “committed to ensuring reparations discussions can and will continue in California.”

The group applauded Sen. Steve Bradford (D-Gardena), who is a member of the reparations task force, and other members of the California Legislative Black Caucus for keeping the issue “front and center” in California politics.

AB 3121 states that the task force is required to, “Identify, compile, and synthesize the relevant corpus of evidentiary documentation of the institution of slavery Continued on page A2

Making of Reluctant Activists A Police Shooting in a Hospital Forces One Family to Rethink American Justice

In 2015, Houston police officers stepped into Alan Pean’s hospital room, closed the door and shot him through the chest. Nearly six years later, his survival has brought the Pean family a wrenching legacy and conflicted sense of purpose.

By Sarah Varney KHN The beer bottle that cracked over Christian Pean’s head unleashed rivulets of blood that ran down his face and seeped into the soil in which Harold and Paloma Pean were growing their three boys. At the time, Christian was a confident high school student, a football player in the suburbs of McAllen, Texas, a border city at the state’s southern tip where teenage boys — Hispanic, Black, white — sung along to rap songs, blaring out the N-word in careless refrain. “If you keep it up, we’re going to fight,” Christian warned a white boy who sang the racial epithet at a party one evening in the waning years of George W. Bush’s presidency. And they did.

On that fall evening in 2005, Christian pushed and punched, his youthful ego stung to action by the warm blood on his face.

A friend ushered Christian into a car and drove through the bedroom community of Mission, passing manicured golf greens, gable roofs and swimming pools, to the well-appointed home of Dr. Harold and Paloma Pean, who received their son with care and grace. At the time, even as he stitched closed the severed black skin on his son’s forehead, Dr. Pean, a Haitian exile and internal medicine physician, believed his family’s success in America was surely inevitable, not a choice to be made and remade by his adopted country’s racist legacy.

Christian’s younger brother, Alan, a popular sophomore linebacker who shunned rap music and dressed in well-heeled, preppy clothes, agitated to find the boy and fight him. “Everybody shut up and sit down,” Paloma ordered. Inside her head, where thoughts roiled in her native Spanish, Paloma recalled her brother’s advice when they were kids growing up in Mexico: No temas nada. Eres una chica valiente. Never be scared. You are a brave girl. She counseled restraint, empathy even. “Christian, we

(From left) Dominique, Alan and Christian Pean near their shared home in New York City. Nearly six years after Alan was shot by hospital security officers, the brothers are grappling with what it means to be Black in America and their role in transforming American medicine. “It’s been so many years, and we didn’t get justice,” Dominique says. (PhotoCredit: Al J Thompson / For KHN)

need to forgive. We don’t know how the life of this guy is that he took that reaction.” This is a country that recognizes wisdom, Paloma thought.

The Pean family’s tentative truce with America’s darker forces would not last long. In August 2015, when Alan was 26 and under care at a Houston hospital where he had sought treatment for bipolar delusions, off-duty police officers working as security

guards would shoot him through the chest in his hospital room, then handcuff him as he lay bleeding on the floor. Alan would survive, only to be criminally charged by the Houston police.

The shot fired into Alan’s chest would extinguish the Pean family’s belief that diligent high achievers could outwit the racism that shadows the American promise. Equality would not be a

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Readiness to Reopen: Leaders Gauge COVID Threat in Black Communities

(shutterstock photo)

Aldon Thomas Stiles California Black Media With California set to do away with most of the state’s COVID-19 restrictions and prepare to fully reopen on June 15, some Black leaders and medical professionals are taking stock of the pandemic’s impact on Black communities.

They are also tracking readiness in those areas to return to business as usual.

As of May 7, over 60% of Californians had received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. And 44% of people in the state are now fully vaccinated.

But the road to this point of the state’s journey to recovery has not been easy, says Dr. Jerry P. Abraham, who leads outreach programs at the Kedran Community Health Center in South Los Angeles.

“We drove up to the county Department of Public Health warehouse, we banged on those doors, we jumped up and down, we screamed, and we shouted,” Abraham said. “We waved our hands, ‘where are our vaccines?’ And we left with 100 doses that day.’”

Abraham shared his story during a webinar about the state’s COVID-19 recovery efforts organized by California Black Media in collaboration and the Center at the Sierra Health Foundation.

Not long after the pandemic started, the Kedran Community Health Center swiftly responded to provide people in South Los Angeles – many of them frontline

healthcare workers and the elderly, with as many vaccines as they could get their hands on, Abraham said.

Dr. Oliver Brooks, Chief Medical Officer, Watts Healthcare Corporation, a community health center located in South Los Angeles, initially saw inequity in access to the vaccine in the Black community, but says, with time, things got better.

“Quite frankly right now, the vaccine is fairly widely available. An individual who has anything more than a passing desire to get vaccinated can get vaccinated,” Brooks said. “That being stated, in California, African Americans are 5% to 6% of the population and only 3.7% of those getting vaccinated. I don’t see it right now as an access issue more so than a complacency issue.”

David Tucker, spokesperson of the California Department of Public Health Vaccinate All 58 campaign, says even though the state has set June 15 as the date for reopening, it doesn’t mean that everything is back to normal.

“We still need to be cautious. We still need to wash our hands and wear masks when appropriate,” he said. “We need to get vaccinated. California has come together and truly met the moment and saved countless lives. COVID-19 rates and hospitalizations have been steadily decreasing and our vaccinations efforts continue to increase.

So far, in California, there has been about 3.8 million

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Free!

Thursday, May 13, 2021

Florida School Halts Use of Book About a Black Boy’s Killing FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) – A Florida school board is halting the use of a fictional book about a Black boy who is killed by a white officer after a police union complained to the school district that is antipolice “propaganda.”

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported the children’s fiction book “Ghost Boys” by Jewell Parker Rhodes was used in one fifth grade class at an elementary school in Coral Springs, Florida, without going through the district’s vetting process.

A school board member said assignments related to the book were on hold.

“The timing of whether to implement this subject matter must include parents and ultimately be a decision by the parents of each student,” school board member Lori Alhadeff told the newspaper. “I do not feel ‘Ghost Boys’ is appropriate for fifth graders.”

Common Sense Media, a nonprofit that rates TV shows, movies, books and other content based on children’s development, says the book is appropriate for children who are 10 and older, the age of fifth graders.

The book was published in 2018, and it is told from the point of view of a 12-year-old bullied Black boy in Chicago who is shot dead by a white police officer while playing with a toy gun, recalling the 2014 killing of Tamir Rice, in Cleveland.

In the wake of the killing, the ghost boy narrates how his family and the community is impacted, and befriends the daughter of the officer, who is the only living person who can see him, and Emmett Till, a 14-year-old boy from Chicago whose beating death in 1955 helped spur the civil rights movement.

The director of the local Fraternal Order of Police, Paul Kempinski, asked Broward County School Board members in a letter to stop using the book. He wrote he was upset by the friendship between the daughter and the boy saying he “ultimately convinces her that her father shot and killed him because her police officer father is a liar and a racist.”

“Our members feel that this book is propaganda that pushes an inaccurate and absurd stereotype of police officers in America.”

The book was removed from a California school district late last year, according to the National Coalition Against Censorship.

Broward County Public Schools district told the newspaper the book was “supplemental” material and could be considered by teachers who want to delve into racial and criminal justice issues. But the district said the teachers who assigned the book did not follow protocol of informing parents to give them a chance for their children to opt out of the assignment.

It was previously used in the same school district at Pines Middle School, where a seventh grade book club spoke via Skype with the Black author.

Commemorative Police Coin Criticized for Offensive Design KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – A commemorative coin that was designed to honor the Kansas City Police Department’s vice unit is being widely criticized.

The coin, which was to feature an image of a 1970s-era pimp with a biracial complexion on one side and a handcuffed brown-skinned woman in a sexually suggestive pose on the other side, was never produced but it was advertised in the department’s newsletter in January.

Mayor Quinton Lucas on Thursday said he had seen a rendering of the coin, which hasn’t been released publicly, and he told department leaders he was displeased.

“I thought it was repugnant at the time and shared that sentiment as soon as I learned about it with department leadership,” Lucas said.

Shortly after the coin was advertised, Police Chief Rick Smith told the Board of Police Commissioners he found the image offensive and had launched an investigation into how it had been approved, according to an image of the email obtained by The Kansas City Star.

“On a personal note, I truly apologize to anyone that was offended,” Smith wrote. “I can tell you that I am too offended. This should never have happened. A Vice detective who sanctions this type of image should be closely scrutinized for his or her position in that unit.”

Community activists said the coin’s design raises questions about the culture inside the department.

“This is yet another disturbing example of the severity of systemic racism inside the KCPD,” said Gwen Grant, president/CEO of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City. “The very fact that such a coin could be designed and promoted among the rank and file is unconscionable.”

Police Department spokesman Sgt. Jacob Becchina said the department has changed how it manages the production of such coins.

“Command staff determined the coin should not be approved for production,” Becchina said in an email to The Star. “If an individual wants to produce a challenge coin depicting some aspect of the department or unit that has to be approved by that respective chain of command.”

Police officials declined to say whether anyone was disciplined related to the coin’s design.

World & Nation

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Los Angeles News Observer

Thursday, May 13, 2021

Paris Court Civil Rights Groups Sue Georgia Over Tries AntiNew Sweeping Voter Suppression Law Racism “This law is driven by blatant racism, represents politics at its very worst, and is clearly illegal,” said Sophia Lakin, deputy Activist for director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project. urge the court to act swiftly to strike it Statue Attack “We down.”

By JOHN LEICESTER Associated Press PARIS (AP) – A French activist for Black rights went on trial in Paris on Monday for defacing a statue of a historical figure from France's colonial, slave-trading past, calling the protest a political act to denounce deep-seated racism.

Franco Lollia said that rather than vandalize the statue, he improved it by spraying “state Negrophobia” in red paint on its pedestal.

The statue outside parliament honors Jean-Baptiste Colbert, a 17th-century royal minister who helped author rules governing slaves in France's overseas colonies. Among other cruelties, Colbert's notorious “Black Code” allowed for slaves to be branded, have their ears cut off and be executed for escape attempts.

Lollia told the court that, in his view, Colbert committed crimes against humanity. He said celebrating Colbert with a statue outside the National Assembly shows that the French state “is viscerally Negrophobic even today” and that the statue's presence is “spitting in the face of all people who look like me.”

Lollia, who is Black, called the trial “an insult.”

“I am sad to see that history seems to be repeating itself and our voices are still not heard,” he said. “I am really disappointed that the justice system is still so blind.”

The trial coincided with France's annual commemoration of the abolition of slavery. Lollia noted that the day isn't marked with a national holiday, dismissing it as “a bone for a dog” that fails to adequately commemorate the horrors inflicted on millions of slaves. French President Emmanuel Macron marked the day of remembrance with a wreath-laying and a minute of silence at a Paris monument symbolizing broken chains.

Inside the courtroom, Lollia's defense team put France on trial, detailing and denouncing centuries of colonial atrocities.

They argued that in the wake of the worldwide wave of fury galvanized by the killing a month earlier of George Floyd, Lollia shone a necessary light on slavery and Colbert's role.

Calling slavery “the greatest injustice in the history of humanity,” defense lawyer Guy Florentin said the paint on the statue represented “the blood of victims demanding reparations.”

“There was no degradation, it was just a bit of paint,” he said. “I would have left it as it was.”

The sweat-top and face mask that Lollia wore to the trial both had the words “Anti-Negrophobia Brigade” printed on them. The back of his T-shirt described “Negrophobia” as a “weapon of mass destruction that doesn't admit its name” and said: “Let's arm ourselves to the hilt to fight it.”

The judge said video footage of the graffiti attack showed him hurling paint at the statue and spray-painting its base.

“It was a political act,” Lollia said. “It wasn't a degradation.

It was a contribution. It was even an improvement.”

The charge of defacing property is punishable by a fine or community service. The prosecutor asked for a fine of 800 euros ($970). The judge said she would deliver her verdict on June 28.

Lollia's lawyers argued that he acted in self-defense. His attorney Georges-Emmanuel Germany said the judge should consider France's past behavior as “a criminal state” in weighing Lollia's act.

“You are not only the judge of the accused,” the attorney said. “You are also the judge of the behavior of the victim” _ meaning the French state.

Speaking outside the courtroom, Lollia said France's colonial past is still feeding racial discrimination.

“Colbert is a major figure of this colonial past, this past where Black people were not recognized as human beings,” he said.

“The system itself is Negrophobic from the moment it doesn't put into question the history,” he said. “France is capable of healing from its Negrophobia and from its state racism in general, but the French state must learn to face its history, and not only part of the history it likes.”

ATLANTA — Civil rights groups have filed a new federal lawsuit against Georgia’s sweeping law that makes it much harder for all Georgians to vote, particularly voters of color, new citizens, and religious communities.

The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Georgia, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), and law firms WilmerHale and Davis Wright Tremaine brought the case on behalf of the Sixth District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Georgia Muslim Voter Project, Women Watch Afrika, Latino Community Fund Georgia, and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. The law being challenged is S.B. 202, which was passed by the Georgia House of Representatives and Senate and signed by Gov. Brian Kemp in under seven hours last Thursday. These elected officials’ actions follow the 2020 presidential election and the 2021 runoff elections for two seats to the U.S. Senate that saw record turnout of voters, particularly Black voters, in Georgia.

The elections were celebrated not just for their turnout, but also for their integrity, with Georgia officials praising them as safe and secure. But rather than act to expand participation in the political process, Georgia leaders responded by doing what they have done many times in the state’s history: they placed burdensome, unjustified, and unnecessary restrictions on voters, particularly voters of color and other historically disenfranchised communities. The lawsuit challenges multiple provisions in S.B. 202, including the:

• ban on mobile voting

• new narrow identification requirements for requesting and casting an absentee ballot

• delayed and compressed time period for requesting absentee ballots

• restrictions on secure drop boxes • out-of-precinct provisional ballot disqualification • drastic reduction in early voting in runoff elections • perhaps most cruelly, ban on “line warming,” where volunteers provide water and snacks to Georgians, disproportionately those of color, who wait in needlessly long lines to cast their vote These provisions, the lawsuit charges, violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, and infringe on Georgians’ rights under the First, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.

“This law is driven by blatant racism, represents politics at its very worst, and is clearly illegal,” said Sophia Lakin, deputy director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project. “We urge the court to act swiftly to strike it down.”

“…The provisions of the new law and the manner in which it was enacted reflect a thorough disregard for the sanctity of protecting the right to vote and a headlong and determined zeal to diminish Black political power in Georgia,” said Sherrilyn Ifill, LDF’s president and director-counsel. (Photo: iStockphoto / NNPA)

“Legislators and Governor Kemp ignored the very obvious lessons from the election in 2020 and runoffs in 2021: expand safe and secure access to the ballot, codify innovations to voting, and provide additional resources to cash-strapped counties,” said Nancy Abudu, deputy legal director for the SPLC. “Instead, to appease conspiracy theorists and amplify deadly lies about past elections, Georgia’s leaders have chosen to pass into law S.B. 202, which makes it more difficult for every Georgian — but particularly Georgians who are members of historically disenfranchised communities — to vote in a safe, secure, and convenient manner and have that vote counted. In so doing, the defendants have violated federal law and the U.S. Constitution, and we turn to the federal courts and U.S. Congress to address the incredible harm S.B. 202 will have on our clients.”

“S.B. 202 is perhaps the most bold and shameful voter suppression legislation enacted in the modern era.

Its purpose and target are clear: to create barriers to voting for Black voters who turned out in record numbers for the November 2020 presidential election and the January 2021 special election. The provisions of the new law and the manner in which it was enacted reflect a thorough disregard for the sanctity of protecting the right to vote and a headlong and determined zeal to diminish Black political power in Georgia,” said Sherrilyn Ifill, LDF’s president and director-counsel. “This is a powerful moment for democracy in this country. S.B. 202’s attempt to disenfranchise Black voters in Georgia harkens back to the most shameful days

of voter suppression in the decades before the civil rights movement. That this law was passed in Georgia, less than a year after the death of one of the state’s greatest heroes, Representative John Lewis, is shameful. In his name, we will fight to strike down this illegal attempt to undo his legacy. Anything less represents a grave threat to the future of our democracy and inherently undermines the notion of equality for all.”

“Democracy depends upon people expressing their voices freely through their votes,” said WilmerHale partner Debo P. Adegbile. “The Georgia omnibus voting obstruction law is a prime example of modern voter suppression and erodes democracy. A great deal has changed in Georgia but the commitment to brazenly disenfranchise voters clearly has not.”

“S.B. 202 attacks the most sacred foundations of our democracy. But in this country, the law secures every American citizen the equal right to make their voice heard at the ballot box, no matter who they are. And we intend to vindicate that right in court,” said Adam Sieff, attorney at Davis Wright Tremaine.

The lawsuit, Sixth District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church v. Kemp, was filed in federal court in Atlanta.

Complaint: https://www.aclu.org/legal-document/ sixth-district-african-methodist-episcopal-church-v-kemp Statement: https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/ civil-rights-groups-sue-georgia-over-new-sweeping-votersuppression-law

California’s Reparations Effort Takes Shape as Governor Appoints Five News Observer Members to Task Force Los Angeles

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that existed within the United States and the colonies.”

The task force also needs to choose, “the form of compensation that should be awarded, the instrumentalities through which it should be awarded, and who should be eligible for this compensation,” the bill reads.

According to the bill, over 4 million African Americans were enslaved in the United States from 1619 to the year slavery was abolished in 1865.

The bill focuses on, “Leveling the playing field in our society and ensuring that everyone has a fair shot at achieving the California dream,” according to Newsom.

Newsom’s task force appointments include four people of African descent and one Japanese American. They all have a credible track record of advocating for racial justice and equity in their respective communities. According to the legislation, Senate confirmation is not required for members of the task force, but they are eligible for a daily allowance for no more than ten meetings.

Newsom’s appointees are: · Dr. Amos Brown, 80, an award-winning civil rights leader and respected Bay Area pastor whose leadership

journey started under the tutelage of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in the 1960s. He protested alongside the Freedom Riders, a multiracial group of activists who fought segregation laws in the South during the Jim Crow era. He is also the current president of the San Francisco Branch of the NAACP and a Member of the organization’s board of directors. · Dr. Cheryl Grills, 62, is a clinical psychologist and professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

Grills achieved international recognition for her research on racial trauma, healing, and implicit bias in the African American community. She also serves as a member of a few congressional caucuses and leads national COVID-19 initiatives focused on communities of color. · Lisa Holder, 49, is a trial attorney who owns a law firm in Southern California. Holder is well known as an advocate for racial and social justice with more than two decades of legal experience. · Dr. Jovan Scott Lewis, 38, is an economic anthropologist and geographer whose research includes reparations, race, and economic inequality in the U.S.

and Caribbean. Lewis is the chair of the Department of Geography at the University of California Berkeley, where he also works as an associate professor. · Don Tamaki, 69, is an attorney best known for the Supreme Court case of Korematsu v. the United States.

Tamaki overturned the conviction of Fred Korematsu who refused to be taken into custody during the imprisonment of Japanese Americans in World War II. The case boosted the Redress Movement, a social movement inspired by landmark court cases that shaped human rights for Japanese Americans. Tamaki is also the co-founder of ‘Stop Repeating History,’ an intersectional campaign that aims to create public awareness on reparations and racial equity.

Once the team has a total of nine members, the task force will host its first meeting on June 1, 2021. The task force will also elect its own chair and vice-chair who will be supported by staff from the Office of the General Attorney of California.

Readiness to Reopen: Leaders Gauge COVID Threat in Black Communities

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COVID-19 cases and 62,269 deaths from complications of the disease. Health officials have administered more than 60 million COVID tests and administered over 32 million vaccines, according to the California Department of Public Health.

Tucker said four million of those vaccines were administered in areas hit hardest by COVID-19.

But only 25 % of Black Californians have been vaccinated so far.

“We have come a really long way since the beginning of this pandemic,” said California’s Surgeon General Nadine Burke Harris. “We are able to connect with other people again – it’s good for our health psychologically and emotionally.

But to maintain the low numbers of COVID cases in California, Burke Harris said people have to continue to get vaccinated and spread the word to their family members and people in their community about the importance of getting the COVID shot.

Burke Harris said it’s also important for people who get vaccinated to include their race. She says it makes it easier to track how many African Americans in California are getting vaccinated and make the case for more resources to increase those numbers if they are low.

On testing, Brooks explained why he feels people are no longer regularly checking to see if they are infected with COVID. He says it has become less of a priority in California but assured that the decline isn’t much cause for concern.

“But the reason for not getting tested, from what we can ascertain, has nothing to do with hesitancy, just not noting the need,” Brooks said. “I think that because of the vaccine, the virus is just not circulating as much and there’s not the urgency that is felt for providing COVID-19 [tests].”

Brooks mentioned that there have been some holdouts for getting vaccinated but, according to him, that is to be expected.

“There will always be a hardcore percent of any given population, that hovers around 15 to 20% in America, that for COVID vaccines are saying ‘I’m not doing it,’” Brooks said.

Despite these holdouts, Brooks thinks California will be relatively safe to reopen in June.

“There was a section of the population where their mindset was ‘wait and see.’ The number of the ‘wait and see’ is on its way down and those who are fully vaccinated are on the way up,” Brooks said. “What we are seeing with the

Black community is a continued uptake of vaccinations.”

The Rev. K.W. Tulloss, pastor of Weller Street Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles and president of the Baptist Minister’s Conference of LA, says although the number of COVID cases are decreasing, it is still important for leaders to continue encouraging people to get vaccinated and tested when necessary.

“It is very important that we as a faith community, rise and come together to push the importance of this vaccination. We in the faith community have been distant over the past year. Many of our members have been afflicted. We have lost loved one. We have done funerals virtually,” he said.

In order to get back to a sense of normalcy, Tulloss continued, “It is very important that we look for opportunities to push this vaccine.

“We have to continue to educate, continue to encourage our faith community to rise up and recognize the importance of getting vaccinated. We’re tired of going to funerals because of COVID. We’re tired of being separated and isolated because of COVID,” he said.

Thursday, May 13, 2021

Entertainment

Los Angeles News Observer A3

R&B Singer Aaron Neville, 80, Retires from Touring

By CHEVEL JOHNSON Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) – Fans of the sweet, melodic sounds of New Orleans’ legendary vocalist Aaron Neville won’t have many opportunities to hear him live from now on.

In posts Thursday on his official website and via social media, Neville announced his official retirement from touring.

Now 80, Neville said embarking on multi-date tours is no longer appealing.

“The time has come for me to stop ripping and running on the road,” Neville wrote. “I waited for someone to invent a way to beam me from show to show but no such luck. ... Unfortunately, the grueling nature of travel and the schedule needed to make a tour work has become less than desirable. The current climate of our world brought me many realizations. Life is short and I’d like to spend my remaining time on this earth being less hurried.”

Still, Neville said his love for singing has not waned.

“It provides so much joy for me, at least as much as for those listening, if not more,” he said.

“Don’t see this as a permanent goodbye, by the grace of God, I will keep making more music and may show up

at a special event or concert down the road,” he promises.

Neville hasn’t performed live since March 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic caused concerts to come to an abrupt halt in the U.S. Instead, he has livestreamed solo performances from Freville Farm, the 12-acre home in upstate New York where he and his wife, photographer Sarah A. Friedman, have lived since 2013.

The virus is of great concern to Neville, whose old age and asthma makes him especially at risk of developing a severe case of COVID-19.

“I don’t want to get sick,” Neville said in an article last year written for AARP. “So, I canceled my tour dates and we’ve been home and isolated on our farm in New York.”

Neville’s solo career flourished after the 1966 release of “Tell It Like It Is” and a later collaboration with Linda Ronstadt on “Don’t Know Much” and “All My Life.”

He also garnered much of his fame from his work with the Neville Brothers, an R&B, funk and soul group that was based in his hometown of New Orleans and also consisted of his brothers Art, Charles and Cyril.

The group, which formally disbanded in 2012, was known for closing out the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival’s two-weekend run each spring.

Lloyd Price, Singer and Early Rock Influence, Dies at the Age of 88

By HILLEL ITALIE and ANDREW DALTON Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) – Singer-songwriter Lloyd Price, an early rock ‘n roll star and enduring maverick whose hits included such up-tempo favorites as “Lawdy Miss Clawdy,” “Personality” and the semi-forbidden “Stagger Lee,” has died. He was 88.

Price died Monday at a long-term care facility in New Rochelle, New York, of complications from diabetes, his wife, Jacqueline Price, told The Associated Press on Saturday.

Lloyd Price, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, was among the last survivors of a postWorld War II scene in New Orleans that anticipated the shifts in popular music and culture leading to the rise of rock in the mid-1950s. Along with Fats Domino and David Bartholomew among others, Price fashioned a deep, exuberant sound around the brass and swing of New Orleans jazz and blues that placed high on R&B charts and eventually crossed over to white audiences.

“Very important part of Rock history. He was BEFORE Little Richard!” rock singer and E Street Band member Steven Van Zandt said Saturday on Twitter.

“Lawdy Miss Clawdy of 1952 has a legit claim as the first Rock hit.... Righteous cat. Enormous talent.”

Price’s nickname was “Mr. Personality,” fitting for a performer with a warm smile and a tenor voice to match.

But he was far more than an engaging entertainer. He was unusually independent for his time, running his own record label even before such stars as Frank Sinatra did the same, holding on to his publishing rights, and serving as his own agent and manager. He would often speak of the racial injustices he endured, calling his memoir “sumdumhonkey” and writing on his Facebook page during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests that behind his “affable exterior” was “a man who is seething.”

Born in Kenner, Louisiana, one of 11 siblings, Price had been singing in church and playing piano since childhood. He was in his late teens when a local DJ’s favorite catchphrase, “Lawdy Miss Clawdy,” helped inspire him to write his boundary-breaking first hit, which he worked on in his mother’s fried fish restaurant.

Featuring Domino’s trademark piano trills, “Lawdy Miss Clawdy” hit No. 1 on the R&B charts in 1952, sold more than 1 million copies and became a rock standard, covered by Elvis Presley and Little Richard among others.

But Price would have mixed feelings about the song’s broad

appeal, later remembering how local officials in the Jim Crow South resisted letting both blacks and whites attend his shows.

Price was drafted and spent the mid-1950s in military service in Korea. He began a career restart with the 1957 ballad “Just Because,” and hit the top with the brassy, pop-oriented “Stagger Lee,” one of the catchiest, most celebratory songs ever recorded about a barroom murder.

Written by Price, “Stagger Lee” was based on a 19th century fight between two Black men _ Lee Shelton, sometimes known as Stag Lee, and Billy Lyons _ that ended with Shelton shooting and killing his rival. Their ever-changing legend was appearing in songs by the 1920s, and has inspired artists ranging from Woody Guthrie and Duke Ellington to Bob Dylan and the Clash.

Price’s version opened with a few spoken words that had the understated tension of a crime novel: “The night was clear, the moon was yellow, and the leaves came tumbling ... down.” The band jumps in and Price shouts out the story of Stagger Lee and Billy fighting over a game of dice, concluding with a bullet from Stagger Lee’s 44 passing through Billy and breaking the bartender’s glass.

“Go Stagger Lee!” a chorus chants throughout.

The song reached No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart early in 1959, but not everyone was entertained.

“American Bandstand” host Dick Clark worried the song was too violent for his teen-centered show and pressed Price to revise it: For “Bandstand” watchers and some future listeners, Stagger Lee and Billy peacefully resolve their dispute.

“I had to go make up some lyrics about Stagger Lee and Billy being in some kind of squabble about a girl,” Price told Billboard in 2013. “It didn’t make any sense at all. It was ridiculous.”

Price followed with the top 10 hits “Personality” and “I’m Going To Get Married” and the top 20 songs “Lady Luck” and “Question.” He fared no better than many of his contemporaries once the Beatles arrived in the U.S. in 1964, but he found his way into other professions through a wide range of friends and acquittances. He lived for a time in the same Philadelphia apartment complex as Wilt Chamberlain and Joe Frazier and, along with boxing promoter Don King, helped stage the 1973 “Thrilla in Manila” between Frazier and Muhammad Ali and the 1974 “Rumble in the Jungle” championship fight between Ali and George Foreman. He was also a home builder, a booking agent, an excellent bowler and the creator of a line

of food products.

His career in music continued, sporadically. He and his business partner Harold Logan started a label in the early 1960s, Double L Records, that gave an early break to Wilson Pickett, and they also ran a New York nightclub.

But after Logan was murdered, in 1969, Price became so disheartened he eventually moved to Nigeria and didn’t return until the 1980s. He would become a favorite on oldies tours, performing with Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis among others.

He settled in New York with his wife, but was not

forgotten back home. A street in Kenner was renamed Lloyd Price Avenue and for years Kenner has celebrated an annual Lloyd Price Day. Price would credit clean living and steady focus for his endurance.

“I never drank, smoked, used drugs or had bad habits,” he told interviewer Larry Katz in 1998. “I’d drive a taxi cab to get me the food I need to live. I never was starstruck. I had 23 hit records and I never looked for the next record to hit. I never had that need that they had to be somebody. I just wanted to be.”

Ulta Beauty,” a company spokeswoman said in a statement Thursday. “We stand against racism in all forms and as we've publicly shared in our social channels, we stand in unity with the AAPI community. We believe it's important

that our partners share our values. Our discussions with Conde Nast are actively underway as we seek to better understand their next steps and determine ours.”

McCammond, 27, was a noted political journalist before Conde Nast announced earlier this month she'll replace Lindsay Peoples Wagner at digital-only Teen Vogue. Soon after the announcement, since-deleted tweets stretching back to 2011, when McCammond was in college, resurfaced, including several using racist and homophobic stereotypes. McCammond is Black.

While Teen Vogue has stood by McCammond's appointment, detractors have spoken out on social media and McCammond has apologized. More than 20 staff members at Teen Vogue posted a statement Monday saying they've written management in support of readers and others alarmed by the tweets, noting that they come at a time of “historically high anti-Asian violence and amid the ongoing struggles of the LGBTQ community.”

McCammond had worked for Axios and was an on-air contributor for MSNBC. In her latest apology, posted on social media, she said: “This has been one of the hardest weeks of my life, in large part because of the intense pain I know my words and my announcement have caused so many of you. ... I've apologized for my past racist and homophobic tweets and will reiterate that there's no excuse for perpetuating those awful stereotypes in any way.”

The tweets first surfaced in 2019, when she said she was “deeply sorry” and that the posts “do not reflect my views or who I am today.”

A spokeswoman for Teen Vogue did not immediately respond to an email request for comment Thursday.

Ulta Beauty's ad pause was first reported by The Daily Beast.

The company has had problems of its own. It has faced accusations of racial profiling of customers in stores and criticism over a lack of diversity in brands it carries. The company recently hired actor and fashion icon Tracee Ellis Ross as a diversity and inclusion adviser as it has started to implement a broader initiative on those fronts. Those steps include a promise to double the number of Blackowned brands available on their shelves and a $20 million campaign to reach out to customers of color and other underrepresented groups.

Ulta Beauty Pauses Teen Vogue Ad Spending

By LEANNE ITALIE Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) – A major advertiser at Teen Vogue, the retailer Ulta Beauty, has paused ad spending at

the Conde Nast publication amid a growing outcry over anti-Asian tweets by the site's new editor in chief, Alexi McCammond.

“Diversity and inclusion have always been core values at

A4

Los Angeles News Observer

Features

Thursday, May 13, 2021

California Corporate Boards are Made Up Only 2% Black Women Quinci LeGardye California Black Media While the representation of women on the boards of California publicly traded companies has increased over the past few years, Black women remain disturbingly underrepresented.

In fact, African Americans account for only 2 % of all women serving on corporate boards, according to a report the California Partners Project (CPP) recently released.

The annual report follows the Women on Boards Law also known as Senate Bill (SB) 826. Signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2018, SB 826 requires publicly held corporations based in California to have at least one female member on its board of directors by the end of 2021, with the minimum number increasing based on the number of board seats.

“I am mindful that there is still room for more diversity on corporate boards and California can do better achieving gender-diverse corporate boards for the benefit of our state, its economy, and above all, its people,” said California Secretary of State Shirley Weber.

Weber’s office is responsible for enforcing SB 826.

Under the law, companies that are not in compliance with SB 826 by the end of year could be fined up to $100,000.

According to the CPP report, the number of female board members overall has increased by over 500 across California since SB 826 passed, but a majority of the women being appointed to serve on California’s corporate boards are White.

Across the state, a total of 1,483 women now serve on corporate boards. Although White women make up 18.5 % of California’s population, they hold 20.2 % of those corporate board seats.

The report states, “Women on corporate boards have been shown to drive business growth, with a triple bottom line model of environmental responsibility, social responsibility, and strong governance practices. Before us now is the opportunity to fill more board seats with women of color, whose unique perspectives and experiences can lead our state — and the world — into a future of greater equity, prosperity, and health for everyone.”

The report found that although women now hold

26.5 % of California’s public company board seats, only 6.6 % are held by women of color, who make up 32 % of California’s population. The report also found that Latinas hold 1 % of the seats on California’s corporate boards.

Responding to the report’s findings, CPP, an organization California First Partner was co- Jennifer Siebel Newsom co-founded, is calling for California’s publicly held companies to fill upcoming board vacancies with people of color. The recommendation also falls in line with the mandate of another law on corporate board representation, the Underrepresented Communities on Boards law or Assembly Bill (AB) 979.

AB 979, which was signed into law in September 2020, requires California-based publicly held corporations to have at least one board member from an underrepresented (shutterstock photo) minority in the state by the end of 2021. corporation executives and recruiters expand The report also includes strategies for recruiting women encourages their insular networks; expand their definition of qualified; of color to corporate boards. Informed by focus groups think of diversity CPP organized, recommendations include guidance that over conformity. as an opportunity; and seek difference

key 2020 Presidential swing states including Michigan, South Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Ohio.

The majority of respondents surveyed have spent a significant amount of money on education-related expenses during the pandemic — 71 percent of parents polled said they or someone they know has spent money out-of-pocket to cover educational expenses due to COVID-19 school closures. The American Rescue Plan includes $129 billion for K-12 education. While that windfall is headed to schools, the next human infrastructure spending plan out of Washington may go equally big for families.

When asked about their support for public charter schools, 71 percent of California Black registered voters surveyed said they supported charters. According to a CalMatters report, public school enrollment in California has hit a 20-year low while enrollment jumped by 15,000 students in public charter schools during the coronavirus pandemic. Despite facing political headwinds among some Democratic politicians, there is no denying public charter schools are as popular among parents now as when President Barack Obama championed them as America’s first Black president.

Charter schools are public schools, tuition free to parents with open enrollment to students. In California, where more than 690,000 students are enrolled in a charter school, charters are authorized by locally elected school boards or the state, operated exclusively by non-profit organizations or school districts and are held accountable for academic results. Charter schools are held accountable to the same transparency laws for governance and finance that apply to school districts — with one big exception.

If charter schools fail to follow the rules, they are closed, not so with school districts.

informed and empowered to seek an understanding of what a high-quality education should look like and why it’s important for their children. Elected officials must take heed, and create and pass policies that are also in support of the issues Blacks care about most — the economy and high quality education.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Dr. Margaret Fortune is the president/ CEO of Fortune School, a network of K-12 public charter schools

What Blacks Want: Politicians Need to Listen

By Dr. Margaret Fortune Fortune School of Education in conjunction with National Action Network (NAN) Sacramento, Freedom Coalition for Charter Schools, Sacramento Alumnae Chapter Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. and The Alpha Community Education Initiative has released a poll called “What Black Voters Think” during the NAN Sacramento Rise Up! Virtual Conference.

We developed the poll as a way to truly understand what Black voters view as the most critical issues they are facing right now. More than half of Black parents said education was most important, eclipsing their concerns about health care, housing and climate change — the issues that tend to dominate the conversation in “progressive” circles. Only the economy ranked higher than education on the list of what Black parents who are registered to vote said affected them most on a daily basis.

COVID relief came in a close third.

The survey, conducted in February 2021 by Applecart Research on behalf of Fortune School of Education, includes responses from 1,290 Black registered voters in California and

Nearly all of California’s top majority Black public schools are actually charter schools led or founded by Black people who have used chartering to specifically create schools that are open to all and aimed at educating Black children to a level of excellence.

Poll results show Black voters support this work. In California, 85% of poll respondents agreed that we need more Black educators and community members to lead publicly funded schools that provide equity, empowerment, and high quality education for all students. Black registered voters in swing states agreed at higher rates with 88% saying more Blacks should be in school leadership.

This poll reveals, in spite of everything we have faced over the last year, Black families will do anything they can to make sure their children have educational opportunities. Blacks are more

LEGAL NOTICES PUBLIC NOTICE FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE NO: 2021 085818 The following person(s) is (are) doing business as: STRIPPEDOWN MUSIC GROUP / STRIPPEDOWN MUSIC PUBLISHING / STRIPPEDOWN MUSIC RECORDS at 9440 Santa Monica Blvd. Suite 600, Beverly Hills, Ca. 90210 Mailing Address: Same County: LA REGISTERED OWNERS(S): HAOFEITZU LLC, CA, 9440 Santa Monica Blvd. Suite 600, Beverly Hills, Ca. 90210 The business is conducted by: a Limited Liability Company SIGNED: ANTHONY CEAZAN, Member The date registrant started to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed above: 01/2021 This statement filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles County on: Apr 12, 2021 DEAN C. LOGAN, Los Angeles County Clerk By: (NO NAME), Deputy NOTICE: IN ACCORDANCE WITH SUBDIVISION (a) OF SECTION 17920, A FICTITIOUS NAME STATEMENT GENERALLY EXPIRES ST THE END IOF FIVE YEARS FROM THE DATE OF WHICH IT WAS FILED IN THE OFFICE OF THE COUNTY CLERK EXCEPT, AS PROVIDED IN SUBDIVISION (b) OF SECTION 17920, WHERE IT EXPIRES 40 DAYS AFTER ANY CHANGE IN THE FACTS SET FORTH IN THE STATEMENT PURSUANT TO SECTION 17913 OTHER THAN A CHANGE IN THE RESIDENCE ADDRESS OF A REGISTERED OWNER. A NEW FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT MUST BE FILED BEFORE THE EXPIRATION. EFFECTIVE JANUARY 1, 2014, THE FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT MUST BE ACCOMPANIED BY THE AFFIDAVIT OF IDENTITY FORM. This statement expires on Apr 12, 2026 LOS ANGELES BAY NEWS OBSERVER (E) PUB: Apr 22, 29, May 6, 13, 2021 ������������������������������� FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE NO: 2021 072989

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PUBLIC NOTICE CASE NUMBER: 19STFL03191

NOTICE TO RESPONDENT: AVISO AL DEMANDADO (Nombre): ROSA MARIA RUIZ MARTINEZ You have been sued. Read the information below and on the next page. Lo han demandado. Lea la informacion a continuacion y en la pagina siguiente.

PETITIONER’S NAME IS: NOMBRE DEL DEMANDANTE: MARIO MARTINEZ BAUTISTA You have 30 CALENDAR DAYS after this Summons and Petition are served on you to file a Response (form FL-120) at the court and have a copy served on the petitioner. A letter or phone call will not protect you.

If you do not file your Response on time, the court may make orders affecting your marriage or domestic partnership, your property and custody of your children. You may be ordered to pay support and attorney fees and costs.

For legal advice, contact a lawyer immediately. Get help finding a lawyer at the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courts.ca.gov/selfhelp), at the California Legal Services website (www. lawhelpca.org), or by contacting your local county bar association.

Tiene 30 dias de calendario despues de haber recibido la entrega legal de esta Citacion y Peticion para presentar una Respuesta (formulario FL-120) ante la corte y efectuar laentrega legal de na copia al demandante. Una carta o llamada telefonica o una audiencia de la corte no basta para protegerio.

Si no presenta su Respuesta a tiempo, la corte puede dar ordenes que afecten su martrimonio o pareja de hecho, sus bienes y la custodia de sus hijos. La corte tambien le puede ordenar que pague manutencion, y honorarios y costos legales.

Para asesoramiento legal, pongase en contacto de inmediato con un abogado. Puede obtener informacion para encontraer un abogado en el Centro de Ayuda de las Cortes de California (www. sucorte.ca.gov), en el sitio web de los Servicios Legales de California (www. lawhelpca.org) o poniendose en contacto con el colegio de abogados de su condado.

NOTICE-RESTRAINING ORDERS ARE ON PAGE 2: The restraining orders are effective against both spouses

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based in Sacramento, California she founded to close the African American Achievement gap in her hometown. Dr. Fortune has been an education adviser to two California governors and is a delegate to the California Democratic Party (CDP). Fortune is on the executive boards of the CDP Black Caucus and National Action Network Sacramento, an affiliate of Rev. Al Sharpton’s national civil rights organization.

Thursday, May 13, 2021

Los Angeles News Observer A5

Features

Making of Reluctant Activists A Police Shooting in a Hospital Forces One Family to Rethink American Justice

Continued from page A1

choice left up to a trio of ambitious boys.

Nearly six years later, the Peans remain haunted by the ordeal, each of them grappling with what it means to be Black in America and their role in transforming American medicine. Christian and Dominique, the youngest Pean brother, both aspiring doctors, like their father, have joined forces with the legions of families working to expose and eradicate police brutality, even as they navigate more delicate territory cultivating careers in a largely white medical establishment.

Alan has seen his studies derailed. He remains embroiled in a lawsuit with the hospital and wavers over his responsibility to the fraternity of Black men who did not survive their own racist encounters with police.

And Paloma and Harold, torn from their Mexican and Haitian roots, look to buoy and reassure their sons, propel them to the future they have earned — even as they wonder whether the America they once revered doesn’t exist.

“People don’t want to admit we have racism,” Paloma told me. “But Pean and me, we know the pain.”

Harold Pean doesn’t recall being raised Black or white. His native Haiti was fractured by schisms beyond skin color.

Harold was 13 when he, his sister and five brothers woke on a May morning in 1968 to find that their father, a prominent judge, had fled Port-au-Prince on one of the last planes to leave the island before another anti-Duvalier revolt pitched the republic into a season of executions. His father had received papers from President François Duvalier demanding he sign off on amendments to Haiti’s Constitution to allow Duvalier to become president for life. Harold’s father refused. Soldiers arrived at the Pean house days after his father escaped.

The Republic of Haiti was marked by Duvalier’s capricious cruelty during Harold’s youth, but as the son of a judge and grandnephew of a physician, he enjoyed a comfortable life in which the Pean children were expected to excel in school and pursue professional careers: engineering, medicine, science or politics. In school, the children learned of their ancestors’ brave heroics, African slaves who revolted against French colonialists and established a free republic, and they saw Black men and women running fruit stands, banks, schools and the government.

“I didn’t experience racism as a kid,” Harold remembers. “When you find racism as a kid, that makes you doubt yourself. But I never doubted myself.”

Two years after Harold’s father fled Haiti, his mother joined her husband in New York, leaving the Pean children in the care of relatives. In 1975, Harold and his siblings left Haiti and immigrated to New York City. New York was cold, like being inside a refrigerator, and the streets were much wider than in Haiti. His father had found a job as an elevator operator at Rockefeller Center.

At the time, Harold’s older brother, Leslie, was attending medical school in Veracruz, Mexico, where tuition was cheaper than in the States, and his father urged Harold to join him. A native French speaker who knew no Spanish, Harold learned anatomy, pathology and biochemistry in a foreign tongue. And he was fluent in Spanish by the time he met María de Lourdes Ramos González, known as Paloma, on Valentine’s Day 1979 at a party in Veracruz. Harold remembers the moment vividly; a vivacious young woman spilling out of a car in the parking lot, shouting her disapproval at the low-energy partygoers. “‘Everybody is sitting here!’”

“They were so quiet,” Paloma remembers. She pointed to the man she would eventually marry, “You! Dance with me!”

Growing up as the only girl in her parents’ modest ranch in Tampico, a port city on the Gulf of Mexico, Paloma was expected to stay inside sewing, cleaning and reading while her three brothers ventured out freely. She felt loved and protected but fumed at her circumscribed life, pleading for a car for her quinceañera and pushing her father, the boss at a petroleum plant, to allow her to become a lawyer. Her father thought she should instead become a secretary, teacher or nurse. “I said, ‘Why are you telling me that?’ He said, ‘Because you are going to get married, you are going to end up in your house. But I want you to have a career in case you don’t have a good husband, you can leave.’”

That good husband, Paloma understood, could be Mexican or white. She remembers her father saying, “I don’t want Black or Chinese people in my family.”

After earning a degree to teach elementary school, Paloma moved to Veracruz. When she was 21, her father installed her in a boarding house for women. Watched over by a prying house matron, Paloma and Harold’s courtship unfolded under the guise of Harold teaching Paloma English. The couple dated for several years before Paloma told her father she wanted to get married to the handsome, young medical student. Harold had returned to New York, and Paloma was eager to join him.

Her father was skeptical. He had spent a few months in Chicago and seen America’s racial unrest. “He told me, ‘My daughter, I don’t have any objections. He’s a good man, but I’m scared for you. I’m scared for my grandkids because, let me tell you, your kids are going to be Black. And I don’t know if you are ready to raise Black kids in the U.S.,’” Paloma remembers. “At that moment I didn’t understand what he meant.”

In the early 1980s, as Harold and Paloma started their lives together, the news from America spoke to racial divisions.

The country was seized by a presidential campaign, in which the actor and former California Gov. Ronald Reagan courted segregationist Southern voters at a Mississippi fairground a few miles from where civil rights workers had been murdered in 1964. In Miami, Black residents protested after an all-white, allmale jury acquitted four white police officers who had beaten an unarmed Black motorcyclist, Arthur McDuffie, to death with their fists and nightclubs. Beaten him “like a dog” McDuffie’s mother, Eula McDuffie, told reporters. Over three days of violent street protests, 18 people died, hundreds were injured, buildings burned and President Jimmy Carter called in the National Guard.

The couple lived in Queens, where Christian was born in 1987, and Harold found work while pursuing medicine. He inspected day care schools for sanitary violations. As he traveled around the city’s streets, he never felt imperiled by the color of his skin. “People said there was racism, but I didn’t see it.” On the few occasions he noticed a police officer or shop security trailing him, he put it out of his mind, trying not to pursue the logic of what had happened. “We never talked about it in the house,” he said. “We were concentrating on achieving whatever goals we had to do.”

Moving with common purpose, Harold and Paloma went wherever the young doctor could find work. Caguas, Puerto Rico, where Alan was born in 1989; back to New York for Harold’s residency in internal medicine at the Brooklyn Hospital Center; then Fort Pierce, Florida, where Dominique was born in 1991; and eventually to McAllen, Texas. Harold’s brother, Leslie, had established his practice in Harlingen, 20 miles north of the Mexican border. Harold was comforted to have family nearby and Paloma wanted to reach her family in Mexico more easily. Still, the first hospital that recruited Harold offered an uncharitable contract; he had to cover half the costs of running the medical practice while seeing only a few patients.

Harold remembers few, if any, other Black doctors in the area. Paloma was more certain about the dearth of diversity in the medical ranks: “We were among the only Blacks in the [Rio Grande] Valley and the only [primary care] doctor.” Three months into the contract, Paloma, who managed the office’s finances, could see they were losing money. She pressed her husband to renegotiate. When he refused, she went to the hospital herself.

“I love the Valley,” she told the administrator, her optimism unimpeachable. “But I came here to work. My husband is a very good doctor and you are not paying what he deserves. If you don’t pay him, we are going to move.” Stunned, the administrator, who was white, agreed to her demands, and Paloma returned triumphant.

Daily life was a blur. The couple worked assiduously at the medical practice, finding allies at the hospital who applauded their diligence and, by Harold’s account, rooted for their success.

But race was never far from the surface. When a medical assistant at the office told Paloma that another doctor had asked her repeatedly if she was still working with “the Black doctor,” Paloma fumed. At the medical center’s Christmas party that year, Paloma approached the doctor. “‘Are you so and so, the doctor?’ I said.

‘Well, I’m Paloma Pean, and I’m here just to let you know the name of my husband. My husband is Harold Pean. P-E-A-N. His last name is not Black.’ And I said, ‘Thank you, and nice to meet you.’ He opened his eyes big, and then I left.”

At home, Paloma insisted on a Catholic upbringing, and the family prayed every evening after dinner in three languages (Paloma in Spanish, Harold in French, the boys in English).

Harold pushed his three boys in the ways his own parents had. “I was expecting them to be either a doctor or a professional, like my parents expected us to be professionals.”

That was the period in which the three Pean boys — Christian, Alan and Dominique — tried to sort out their Blackness in a place that was almost entirely Hispanic and white.

Accustomed to being surrounded by Latinos in Florida and later in McAllen, Paloma recalled her father’s warnings. When the boys started nursery school, they were the only Black babies. “That’s when I thought, I need to start to make them very proud of what they are.”

The questions about skin color came early for Dominique, the youngest brother. His fellow kindergartners watched Paloma,

a Latina, drop her son off for school in the mornings, and a cousin, who was Chinese, pick him up after the last bell. (Paloma’s brother had married a Chinese woman.) “They asked me if I was adopted,” Dominique remembers clearly. He told his mother, “I don’t look like you.” Would his father, pretty-please, pick him up at school to show the kids, once and for all that, no, he was not adopted? It was a conclusive victory. “The kids stopped bringing it up. ‘OK, you’re Black!’”

The boys steered in different directions, employing sports, fashion and culture to signal their preferences to the perplexed children of McAllen. “I really identified with my Hispanic side, but when people see me, they see a Black kid,” remembers Dominique. He ventured to look “more Black,” braiding his hair into cornrows and wearing FUBU, a line of clothing that telegraphed Black street pride. Meanwhile, Alan forged a collegiate look. He listened to “corny, white boy music” (Christian’s words) and dressed in Abercrombie & Fitch.

The boys were left to their own to make sense of the offhanded remarks at school and on the football field. You’re Black, you’re supposed to jump farther. Do Black kids have extra muscles in their legs? You sound smart for a Black kid. You sound white.

Does anyone know if the Pean brothers have big dicks?

“There was open ignorance back then,” Christian remembers.

The boys absorbed and repelled the remarks, protesting vigorously only when the N-word exploded in front of them. One of Alan’s friends on the football team asked him, “What’s up, d…igger?” replacing the N and smirking knowingly. Alan responded, “Why would you even do that?”

It never occurred to Dr. Pean to give his teenage boys “the talk,” the dreaded conversation Black parents initiate to prepare their sons for police encounters. The day Christian came home, blood running down his forehead, Harold argued against pressing charges. “The chief of police was my friend, and I had a lot of police patients,” Harold said. “I would meet white people or Black or Hispanic, and I never thought they would see me differently.”

Where Harold was silent, Paloma was explicit. The history of African Americans amazed her. Dominique remembers his mother saying, “Being Black is beautiful. They came to the United States as slaves, and now they are doctors. That blood runs in you, and you are strong.”

Of all the sons, the oldest boy, Christian, seemed the most curious about exactly what his heritage and his skin color had to do with who he was. Why hadn’t his mother married a Mexican man? Why did other kids want to know if his dark skin rubbed off? Could they touch his hair? At age 6, Christian told his mother a Hispanic girl at school had called him the N-word and his mother a “wetback” as he sat in the cafeteria sipping a Capri Sun. The racist lexicon of American youth befuddled Paloma. She asked Christian, “What does that mean?” “That word is bad,” he responded.

Christian’s doubts about his father’s faith in American meritocracy emerged early. After he endured racist slurs and other offensive remarks at school, Christian told Harold that he felt he was treated differently “because I’m Black.”

“No, Chief,” his father responded, “hard work gets rewarded.

It’s not going to help anybody to get down on your race.”

As mixed-race children, the legitimacy of the Pean brothers’ Blackness trailed them into adulthood. At Georgetown University, Christian found an abundance of Black students for the first time — African Americans and immigrants from Nigeria, Ghana and the Caribbean — and unfamiliar fault lines began to emerge.

“When I was in high school, there was never Black immigrants vs. Black Americans,” Christian said. But in college and later in medical school at Mount Sinai in East Harlem, Christian fielded questions from other Black students about whether scholarships for people of color should be set aside for African Americans descended from slaves, not children of Black immigrants like him.

At the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., Dominique was facing similar questions about his racial camp. When he joined the board of the Student Organization of Latinos, he was asked, “Are you Latino enough?”

“When I’m on the street, people see a Black man. But when I’m with my Black friends, they’re like, Dom, you’re not really Black,” he said. The questions followed them into their personal lives: African American women berating Christian and Dominique for dating women who were not Black.

If the Pean brothers’ Haitian and Mexican roots called into question their rightful membership among African Americans, the police discerned no difference. After graduating from high school in the McAllen suburbs, Alan matriculated to the University of Texas-Austin, a sprawling campus filled almost entirely with white, Hispanic and Asian students. Alan, laid-back and affable, made friends easily. It surprised him then when a security officer trailed him at a store in the mall while he shopped for jeans. “That was the moment when I was like, ‘Oh, I’m Black,” he said.

In August 2015, Alan Pean started the fall semester at the University of Houston where he had transferred to finish his degree in biological sciences. Within days, he began to feel agitated, and his mind slipped into a cinematic delusion in which he believed he was a stunt double for President Barack Obama. At other times, armed assassins chased him.

Alarmed by Alan’s irrational Facebook posts and unable to reach him by phone, Christian called his parents, who were sitting in a darkened McAllen movie theater. He urged them to get to Houston. This was not a drill. In 2009, Alan had spent a week at a hospital for what doctors believed was bipolar disorder.

In the lucid moments between the delusions traversing his psyche, Alan knew he needed medical help. Around midnight, on Aug. 26, 2015, he drove to St. Joseph Medical Center in Houston, swerving erratically and crashing his white Lexus into other cars in the hospital parking lot. As he was hustled into the emergency room on a stretcher, Alan screamed, “I’m manic! I’m manic!”

The following morning, Paloma and Harold flew to Houston and arrived at St. Joseph Medical Center expecting to find sympathetic nurses and doctors eager to aid their troubled son. Both Harold and Christian had placed calls to the emergency department, alerting them to Alan’s mental health history. Instead of finding their son being cared for as a man in the midst of a delusion, Harold and Paloma discovered doctors had not ordered a psychiatric evaluation or prescribed psychiatric medication.

Barred from seeing their son and galled by the hospital’s refusal to provide psychiatric care, Harold and Paloma went to their hotel to try to rent a car so they could take Alan for treatment elsewhere. They were gone for half an hour.

In his hospital room, Alan became more agitated. He believed the oxygen tanks next to his bed controlled a spaceship and that he urgently needed to deactivate a nuclear device using the buttons on his bed. He stripped off his hospital gown and wandered into the hallway naked. A nurse called a “crisis code” and two off-duty Houston police officers, one white and one Latino, charged into Alan’s room. They were unaccompanied by any nurses or doctors, and they closed the door behind them.

The officers would say later that Alan hit one of them and caused a laceration. The first officer fired a stun gun. When the electroshock failed to subdue Alan, according to officers’ statements, the second officer said he feared for his safety and fired a bullet into Alan’s chest, narrowly missing his heart.

Paloma and Harold arrived back at the hospital to find themselves plucked from their ordered lives and hurled into a world in which goodwill and compassion had vanished. Alan was in intensive care with a gunshot wound, and police officers were asking questions about his criminal record. (He had none.) Alan would be detained for attacking the security officers, they were told, and it was now a criminal matter.

Christian flew in from New York, Dominique from Fort Worth, and Uncle Leslie from McAllen. Inconclusive conversations with a hospital administrator strained their patience. “That’s when I was told that we had to have a lawyer to see him,” Leslie said, trembling even as he recounted it nearly six years later.

Paloma was bewildered that her appeals for fairness went unanswered. “I was expecting they would allow me to see my son immediately. I said, ‘My son is a good boy. Let me go and see my kid, please! Please!’” She felt like a ghost, wandering the hospital unstuck in time. Suddenly, the complexions and accents of everyone around her mattered: One police officer was surely white, she thought, the other Hispanic, but maybe born in the U.S.? The nurses were Asian, perhaps Filipino?

Days later, the hospital relented, and nurses led her to a glass window. Alan lay sedated, a tube down his throat, handcuffed to the hospital bed. Paloma’s chest tightened and she felt faint. “I pinched myself, and I said, ‘This cannot be true.’ I screamed to my Lord, ‘Please hold me in your hands.’”

“That’s when I really understood what my father was talking about,” Paloma told me. This, she thought, is how America treats Black men.

Over the next few weeks, it became impossible to unravel what exactly had happened to Alan. Sgt. Steve Murdock, a Houston police investigator, told Christian that Alan had been out of control, picking up chairs, acting like a “Tasmanian devil.”

When the hospital eventually allowed the Pean family into Alan’s room, Alan was groggy, his wrists and hands swollen. Standing

by his bedside, Uncle Leslie asked Paloma, Harold, Dominique and Christian to hold hands and pray. A week later, Alan was transferred to a psychiatric unit, and his delusions began to lift. A few days later, he was released from the hospital.

It was pouring rain the day the Pean family left Houston.

Alan insisted on driving — he always drove on family trips — and his parents and brothers, desperate for a return to normalcy, agreed. Paloma prayed on her rosary in the backseat, nestled next to Christian. Alan drove for 20 minutes until someone suggested they stop and eat. At that moment, Alan turned to his father, “Did I really just drive out of Houston with a bullet wound still in my chest? Pop, I probably shouldn’t be driving.” Dominique drove the last five hours home.

Back in McAllen, neighbors passed on their sympathies, dumbfounded that the Pean’s “well-behaved” middle child, the son of a “respected doctor,” had been shot. Just as Harold years before had sewn up the gash in Christian’s head left by a racially charged fistfight, he and Christian now tended to the piercing pain in Alan’s ribs and changed the dressings of his wound.

That Alan survived a gunshot to the chest meant he faced a messy legal thicket. The police charged him with two accounts of aggravated assault of a police officer and, three months after the shooting, added a third charge of reckless driving. The criminal charges shocked his family.

“At the time, I thought the police and the hospital would apologize, or go to jail,” said Dominique. “If a doctor amputated the wrong leg, there would be instant changes.” A lawyer for the family readied a lawsuit against the hospital and demanded the federal government investigate the hospital’s practice of allowing armed security officers into patients’ rooms.

The seed of injustice planted in Alan’s chest took root in the Pean family.

In October, two months after the shooting, Christian summoned the family from Texas to New York City to march in a #RiseUpOctober protest against police brutality. On a brisk fall day, the five Peans held hands in Washington Square Park wearing custom-made T-shirts that read, “Medicine, Not Bullets.” Quentin Tarantino, the film director, had flown in from California for the event, and activist Cornel West addressed the combustive crowd. Families shouted stories of loved ones killed by police.

Harold had never protested before and stood quietly, taking in the crowds and megaphone chants. Paloma embraced the spirit of the march, kissing her sons with hurricane force as the crowd made its way through Lower Manhattan. She found common cause with mothers whose Black sons had not survived their encounters with police. “We were very lucky that my son was alive,” Paloma said.

The Peans’ attorney had advised Alan not to speak publicly, fearing it would torpedo the lawsuit against the Houston hospital.

Christian had his own reservations; he was applying for orthopedic residency programs, a notably conservative field in which only 1.5% of orthopedic surgeons are Black. “Everything is Googleable,” he told me. “I wasn’t sure what people would think about me being involved in Black Lives Matter or being outspoken.”

When protesters began to chant “F--- the police!” Christian moved into the crowd to change its tenor. He argued briefly with a white family whose daughter had been shot in the head and killed. This isn’t how we move forward, he told them. Christian wanted to summon empathy and unity. Instead, he saw around him boiling vitriol. The protest turned unruly; 11 people were arrested.

Afterward, Alan expressed shock at the crowds, so consumed with anger. Christian wondered, How many of us are out there?

Six months passed, eight months. Expectations of quick justice left the Pean family like a breath. The Houston Police Department declined to discipline the two officers who tased and shot Alan. Mark Bernard, then chief executive officer of St. Joseph hospital, told federal investigators that given the same circumstances, the officers “would not have done anything different.”

A brief reprieve arrived in March 2016, when a Harris County grand jury declined to indict Alan on criminal assault charges, and the district attorney’s office dropped the reckless driving charge. The family’s civil lawsuit against the hospital; its corporate owner, IASIS Healthcare Corp.; Criterion Healthcare Security; the city of Houston; and the police officers dragged on, one lawyer replaced by another, draining the family checkbook.

The Peans, meanwhile, registered each new death of a Black person killed by police as if Alan were shot once more. “It was all I could think about, I had dreams about it,” Dominique said.

“I felt powerless.” Memories stored away resurfaced, eliciting doubts about a trail of misunderstood clues and neon warnings.

Dominique had been close in age to Trayvon Martin when the Florida teenager was killed in 2012. Dominique remembers thinking, “It’s terrible, it’s wrong, but it would never happen with me. I have nice clothes on. I’m going to get my master’s and become a doctor.”

Even Uncle Leslie, who each year donated generously to the Fraternal Order of Police and had brushed off the numerous times police had stopped his car, caved under the overwhelming evidence. “I never related to the police killings until it happened to us,” he confessed. “Now I doubt about whether they are protecting society as a whole.” He has stopped giving money to the police association.

By 2017, Christian, Alan and Dominique had reunited in New York City. For a time, they shared an apartment in East Harlem. Their industrious lives resumed in haste; young men with advanced degrees to earn, careers to forge, loves to be found, just as their parents had done at that dud of a party in Veracruz.

Primed by his own experiences, the nick on his forehead a reminder of earlier battles, Christian pressed the family to speak out. Appointed the family spokesperson, he expanded the problems that would need fixing to guarantee the safety of Black men on the streets and in hospitals: racial profiling, health care inequities, the dearth of Black medical students. Working at a feverish pace, he aced crushing med school exams and pressed more than 1,000 medical professionals across the country to sign a petition protesting Alan’s shooting and the use of armed security guards in hospitals.

“My perspective was, we should be public about this,” Christian said. “We don’t have anything to hide.”

He embraced activism as part of his career, even if it meant navigating orthopedic residency interviews with white surgeons who eyed his résumé with skepticism. Would he be too distracted to be a good surgeon? He delivered a speech at his medical school graduation, and wrote a textbook chapter and spoke at the Mayo Clinic on health care inequities. Medical school deans asked Christian to help shape their response to the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, and friends sought out his opinion. “For many people, I’m their only Black friend,” he said.

Christian has told the story of Alan’s shooting over and over, at physician conferences and medical schools to shine a bright light on structural racism.

Over the months we spoke, Christian, now 33, juggled long days and nights as chief resident of orthopedic trauma at Jamaica Hospital in Queens with his commitments to Physicians for Criminal Justice Reform, Orthopedic Relief Services International and academic diversity panels. He is the über-polymath, coolly cerebral in the operating room and magnetic and winning in his burgeoning career as a thought leader.

Christian’s family imagines he will run for office someday, a congressman, maybe. “He’s charismatic, he has good ideas,” said Dominique. “He’s got big plans.”

Dominique, too, has tried to spread the gospel, pushing for action where he could. He led an event in 2016 at the University of North Texas in Fort Worth using Alan’s story as a case study in the catastrophic collision of racism, mental health and guns in hospitals.

When he moved to New York for medical school, joining his brothers, Dominique was anxious when he spotted police officers on the street. “I would try to be more peppy or upbeat, like whistling Vivaldi.” But with each death — Stephon Clark, Atatiana Jefferson, Breonna Taylor, Daniel Prude, George Floyd, Rayshard Brooks, Daunte Wright — he has come to view these offerings as pointless. “After Alan, it doesn’t matter how big I smile,” Dominique decided.

Now 29 and a third-year medical student at Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine in Harlem, he said, “You can have all these resources and it doesn’t mean anything because of the color of your skin, because there is a system in place that works against you. It’s been so many years, and we didn’t get justice.”

Dominique has devised a routine for each new shooting: watch the videos of Black men and women killed by police or white vigilantes and read about their cases. Then set them aside and pivot back to his studies and school where there are few other Black doctors in training.

“I can escape by doing that,” he told me. “I still need to do well for myself.”

For Alan, as the years passed, time took on a bendable quality.

It snapped straight with purpose — a talk show appearance on Dr. Oz, presentations with his brothers at medical schools in Texas, Massachusetts and Connecticut — and then lost its shape to resignation. Survival had bought him an uneasy liberty: He feared squandering the emotional potency of his own story but remained squeamish at the prostrations demanded by daytime TV shows, the tedium of repeating his story in front of strangers, doubting whether his life’s misfortune was fueling social progress or exploiting a private tragedy.

In 2017, Alan enrolled at the City University of New York to study health care management, digging into a blizzard of statistics about police shootings and patients in crisis, and transferred the following year to a similar program at Mount Sinai. But by last fall, Alan had settled into a personal malaise. He dropped out of Mount Sinai’s program, and spent hours in his room, restless and uncertain.

“I’m still working with coming to terms with who I am, my position in the family,” said Alan, 32. “Christian is an orthopedic surgeon. Dominique is in medical school.” After years of pursuing various degrees (biology, health care management, physician assistant, public health), that might not be who he is after all.

“Inside I didn’t want to do it,” he said. “It translates as a failure.”

“Alan goes back and forth about whether he wants to write about it or go back to his regular life,” Christian said. “I see him all the time, every day, being disappointed in himself for not being more outspoken, not feeling the free will to choose what to do with this thing.”

Isn’t it enough that he survived?

Alan sees a therapist and takes medication for bipolar disorder. He practices yoga. When he breathes deeply, his chest tingles, most likely nerve damage from where the bullet pierced.

After a great deal of thinking, he has turned to writing science fiction and posting it online. The writing comes easily, mostly stories of his delusions told with exquisite detail — people, good and bad, with him in a place “that looks like Hell.”

Outside of his apartment in New York, there are few places he can find sanctuary. Even as the coronavirus emptied the streets, he walked around the city, his eyes scanning for police cars, police uniforms, each venture to the store a tactical challenge. He selects his clothes carefully. “Never before 2015 had police officers stood out to me. Now, if they are a block away, I see them. That’s how real the threat is. I have to think, ‘What am I wearing? Do I have my ID? Which direction am I going?’

“If I were a white person, do they ever think those things?”

Reports of new shootings stir up his own trauma, and Alan trembles at the betrayal. “Why is it so hard to register that an unarmed person should not be shot?”

Covid presented new trauma for the Pean family, and underscored the nation’s racial divide. The three brothers largely were confined to their apartment. Dominique attended medical school classes online while Christian volunteered to work at Bellevue, a public hospital struggling to treat a torrent of covid patients who were dying at a terrifying pace. Many patients spoke only Spanish, and Christian served as both physician and interpreter.

The patients coming to Bellevue were nearly all Black or Latino and poor, and Christian grew angrier each day as he saw wealthier private hospitals, including NYU Langone just a few blocks away, showered with resources. The gaping death rates between the two hospitals would prove startling: About 11% of covid patients died at NYU Langone; at Bellevue, about 22% died. “This wasn’t the kind of death I was used to,” Christian said.

At the peak of the epidemic in New York, Christian videocalled his dad at home in Mission, Texas, and cried, exhausted and overwhelmed. Harold and Paloma had largely shuttered their clinic after several staff members became infected, but Harold continued to see urgent cases. Knowing the dangers to front-line health care workers, Christian was scared for his parents. “I was worried my dad wasn’t going to protect himself,” he said. “And that I was going to lose one of my parents and I wasn’t going to be able to say goodbye.”

All that was stirring inside Christian when Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin callously murdered George Floyd in May 2020, sparking protests across the globe. Black Lives Matter demonstrators filled New York City’s streets, and Christian and Dominique joined them. Alan did not; the lockdown and blaring ambulance sirens had left him anxious and hypervigilant, and after months indoors, he feared open spaces.

“I’m going to wait this one out,” he told Christian.

On the streets, surrounded by the fury and calls for change, Christian wore his white doctor’s coat, a potent symbol of solidarity. “I wanted to show that people who were on the front lines of the pandemic realized who the pandemic was affecting was reflective of the racism that led to George Floyd’s death.” When they returned home, Christian told Alan that the multiethnic makeup of the protesters surprised him. “I think maybe people’s minds are changing,” Christian said. “It was beautiful to see.”

Nearly a year later, on April 20, 2021, a jury found Chauvin guilty of murder, and Christian felt a wash of relief. But in the days that followed, news coverage erupted about the fatal police shooting of a 13-year-old Latino boy in Chicago, and the death of a 16-year-old Black girl in Columbus, Ohio, also at the hands of police. The Pean family was unusually muted. “We only exchanged a few texts about it as a family,” Christian said. “We said maybe things are changing, maybe not.”

The Pean sons will scatter soon: Christian to Harvard University for a trauma medicine fellowship; Dominique to medical rotations at Nassau University Medical Center; and Alan to McAllen, where he will oversee financial operations for his parents’ business. It will be Alan’s first time living alone. “The one semester I was almost going to live by myself I was in Houston, and I got shot. I need to do this by myself to know I can.”

Watching violence unravel one of his son’s lives has haunted Dr. Harold Pean — the threats to Black lives in American cities not escaped as easily as a Haitian dictator.

But Harold, 66, is reluctant to allow Alan’s shooting to rewrite his American gospel; the shooting was a personal tragedy, not a transmutation of his identity. He pushes the memories from his mind when they appear and summons generosity. “Whatever the bad stuff, I keep it inside. I try to psych myself to think positively all the time,” he said. “I want to see everyone like a human.”

He has convinced himself that no more violence will befall his sons or, someday, his grandchildren. Still, he can no longer reconcile the tragedy of Alan’s shooting with his Catholic beliefs. “If God was powerful, a lot of bad things would not have happened,” he said.

“It’s difficult for him to acknowledge that he’s struggling,” Christian said of his father. “He’s a resilient person. He’s never talked about the added burden of being a Black man in America.”

“I think Paloma is the one keeping my brother together,” Uncle Leslie told me.

But who is keeping Paloma together? To her sons, her husband, her fellow parishioners, Paloma, 63, brims with purpose. She’s a fighter, an idealist. But at night, she sleeps with the phone beside her bed. When it rings, she jumps. Are you OK? In her dreams, she is often in danger. Many nights, she lies awake and talks aloud to God. “Why? For what? Tell me, Lord.” (She speaks to the Lord in Spanish. “In English, I think he will not understand me!”)

Paloma’s activism is quietly public: her presence in the community of mostly white doctors; her motherly boasts about Christian and Dominique becoming physicians and Alan’s return to McAllen; her insistence that racism is real in a part of the country where “White Lives Matter” signs abound. “I’m on a mission,” she said. “I want to disarm hate.”

But deep within her, that sense of purpose lives beside a fury she can’t quell and a disappointment so profound it can make it hard to breathe. She wonders if God is punishing her for abandoning Mexico, and whether the U.S. soil in which she chose to grow her own family is poisoned. “Sometimes I feel like I want to leave everything,” she told me. “I feel like I don’t understand how people can be so selfish here in America.”

They are dark thoughts that go largely unspoken, secrets kept even from her mother, age 90, who now lives with them in McAllen. Six years have passed since Alan was shot, and Paloma still has not told her mother what happened in that Houston hospital room. Nor will she ever.

“The pain I went through,” Paloma said, “I don’t want to give that pain to my mom.”

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

Sports

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Los Angeles News Observer

Thursday, May 13, 2021

Bruins Honor Seniors/Moms With a Sweep

By Earl Heath Contributing Sports Writer

UCLA softball fans and seniors could not have ask for a better send-off for their seniors. For the final regular season home game of the 2021 season they did what they’ve done all year win.

They came away with a four game weekend series sweep over Stanford. That ran their record to 38-3 (16-2, PAC-12)

Delanie Wisze went “Uptown” with a two-run homer in the 3rd inning, later she singled giving her three RBI’s on the day.

Rachel Garcia had two hits, knocked in two runs and scored two runs. She also finished her regular season in the circle by

throwing four scoreless innings, striking out two as the Lady Bruins got a 8-0 (5 inning) run rule win over the Cardinal 29-18 (8-10, PAC-12) It was celebration of Seniors as the school recently was allowed to have fans attend games on campus.

Bubba Nichols, Rachael Garcia, Jenavee Peres, Julie Rodriquez, Alana Snow, and Malia Quarles were all recognized in a pregame ceremony.

“I can’t explain how much they mean to me,” said Briana Perez. “They have given their all to this program. They deserve a day like this, it means so much to myself and other the teammates They give and give and give, I love them so much.”

Bruin Seniors (L to R)- Bubba Nichols, Rachael Garcia, Jenavee Peres, Julie Rodriquez, Alana Snow and Malia Quarles. (Photo: UCLA Athletics)

It was Mother’s Day and that made it extra special for Jenavee Peres who is a proud mom of three year-old son, Levi. She was excited to have her parent’s attend the game.

Peres began her softball college playing at San Diego State and transferred to UCLA a with a blessing to have a chance to earn her Master’s Degree which she is on her way.

She left the Aztecs at with the highest batting average (.409) and slugging percentage (.743) in school history.

In her 2020 debut with the Bruins she walked, singled and homered versus then #9 ranked Alabama.

She hit .345 and was third on the team with four homers.

She had seven hits in nine games she played.

“It’s possible to do things when you put your mind to it,” said the Garden Grove native. “I like being an inspiration to other moms that are in the same situation as I am.”

Being a young mother still in college she has leaned on Head Coach Kelley Inouye-Perez who’s the mother of two boys.

“I always call and ask for advice; we share a lot. It’s fun to listen she tells me a lot of stories about (her sons) Michael and Kylie” she added.

After getting off to a 25-1 start in 2020 then having the season cancelled it was “extremely disappointing,” said head coach Inouye-Perez.

The #2 ranked Bruins have picked up right where they left off and put themselves back in the hunt to repeat as National Champs. They been in the top five all season.

They have had 12 games cancelled because of various COVID-19 and medical protocols.

In the series opener Friday it began with a 4-0 win as Aaliyah Jordan homered and was joined by Brianna Perez having two hits and knocking in a run a piece.

Freshman Thessa Malau’ula (St. Anthony’s-Long Beach) had two hits and scored two runs. “Super Senior” Rachael Garcia (10-0) tossed a three-hitter striking out five on 83 pitches. Alana Vawter (20-7) took the lost for the Cardinal.

On Saturday the front end of a double header Bruin bats busted loose for nine hits in a 9-0 (5 inning) run rule win.

Freshman Taylor Edwards (Carson High) had two hits, two RBI’s and scored two runs. Brianna Perez hit a two-run homer.

Megan Faraimo ran her record to 16-3 with the win. Regan Krause (7-7) took the loss.

In game two Rachel Garcia (11-0) did it all knocking in all three runs with a single and three-run homer in a 3-1 win. She pitched seven innings giving up three hits on 93 pitches.

Earlier last week the Bruins took a double header against the Long Beach State at the L.B. State sports complex. In the first game Briana Perez had two RBI’s. Kinsley Washington and Peres knocked in a run apiece in a 5-1 win over the 49er’s. Rachel Garcia pitched four-hitter.

In the nightcap the UCLA bats went to work as the

Jenavee Peres in a proud mom of three year old Levi gets a hit on Mothers/Senior-Day. (Photo: UCLA Athletics)

hammered out nine hits in a 10-2 (5 inning) run rule game.

Holly Azvedo (8-0) got that win.

In an interview talking with Softball America Peres laid out some major words for hard working moms.

“A lot tend to get loss in being moms and I definitely did for awhile,” she stated. “A message I definitely want to send to other women is that its possible (to return to your sport). You are more than just a mom. You are your own person and you still need tome for yourself and something to call yours. And that’s OK.”

Rams Mix It Up on the Draft Lakers Hoping to Make Big Strides

By Earl Heath Contributing Sports Writer It’s been a rugged season for the Los Angeles Lakers as they started with high hopes until the injury bug stepped in and sidelined Anthony Davis first with a sore calf and missed a big chunk of games. LeBron James then went down with a bad ankle injury.

Davis return has had been moderate, then last week he looked like the Davis of old. He busted out with 36 points and 12 rebounds in a tough 106-101 loss to Portland on the road. He had 10 points in the fourth period including seven straight late in the quarter bringing the Lakers to a 100-97 deficit with 1:10 left.

He played 39 minutes that night and had five assists.

“I feel good. I feel good,” Davis said after the game by Zoom. “Put me on the floor, I’m going to do as much as I can to help the team win. I feel like I’m getting my legs back under me. I’m getting a rhythm. So I think the minutes might get back extended. Technically I didn’t play last night so I had a little more juice.

The night before against the Clippers Davis left the game early due to back spasms only playing just nine minutes.

The loss gives the Blazers who are in sixth place in the Western Conference standings the edge for the NBA’s new playoff format.

The following game saw the Lakers take on high-flying Phoenix who have one of the best team record in recent years.

Led by former Clipper Chris Paul the team is playing .700 ball playing around 30 games over .500.

L.A. was ready when the Suns came to Staples Center. Davis poured in 42 points grabbed 12 boards, added 5 assists and blocked 3 shots in 41 minutes in a 123-110 win over the Suns.

There are only six players in NBA history to go 42,12,5, and 3. He is the first Laker to have that statline. He and Hakeem Olajuwon are the only two players to do the feet twice. Davis last did it vs. Denver in 2016.

This was his 11th double-double of the season. He looked the most energetic we’ve seen all season. “We’re not at full strength yet,” said Davis. “We know the team we can be.”

Alex Curuso filled in brilliantly for the missing James and Dennis Schroder. The crafty veteran had 17 points to go with a season high eight assists, three rebounds and three steals in 32 minutes. As a starter this season he has averaged 12 points, 5 assist and 3 boards-Playing 29 minutes a game.

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope had 17, Ben McLemore and Montrezl Harrell had 12 each.

The Lakers are in 7th place and teams in the 7 to 10 spots will be part of a play-in tournament with the winner taking on the number two seed. A well rested LeBron James is due back any day now. (As of press time) “When we’re healthy we are tough to beat,” said Caruso.

“When we have all our guys we’re the best team in the world.”

Los Angeles Lakers star forward Anthony Davis shoots a fallaway jumper vs the Phoenix Suns this past Sunday at Staples Center (Photo: Andrew D. Bernstein/Will Navarro/NBA E/Getty Images)

By Earl Heath Contributing Sports Writer In this years NFL Draft many would expect the Rams to go early with selections on the defensive side of the ball. During the off season the team has lost five players from the defense and defensive coordinator Brandon Staley had departed to the Chargers They started by making four of the first five picks on the defensive side.

The Rams won’t have a first-round pick in five drafts.

In the 2nd round at number 57 they chose Tutu Atwell wide receiver from Louisville. They then traded the 88th pick to San Francisco for the 117th pick and the 121st in the fourth round. The used the 103rd pick in the third round to get inside linebacker Ernest Jones from South Carolina.

During the off season the Rams traded Jared Goff and two first round picks to Detroit for Quarterback Mathew Stafford.

They signed former Long Beach Poly great Deshawn Jackson. Now Stafford appears to have a stable of good receivers to work with.

“The more weapons you can surround yourself with offensively, especially around a player like Mathew Stafford, that’s important to us,” said coach Sean McVay. The 5-9 155-pound Atwell is a roadrunner type, last season he caught 46 passes for 625 yards and seven touchdowns in nine games for a 13.4 ypc.

“I’m feeling great right now man just excited to be a Ram,” said Atwell. When asked about how much did the Rams communicated with him before the draft? He stated: “I had a couple of zoom calls with them, the Zoom calls went great very well. Wide Receivers coach (Eric Yarber) told me don’t be

(Photo by Rey Romo, Texas A&M)

surprised if I don’t let you go past the second round.”

In 2019 Atwell led the Atlantic Coast Conference with 1,276 receiving yards and touchdowns (12). He also had 4 receptions of 70 yards or more. The former high school quarterback finished his career with 10 one hundred yard receiving games.

“Were excited about being able to add him to our deep group Robert (Woods), Cooper (Kupp) and Van (Jefferson),” McVay said. “So to be able to add another guy in the room who can make plays for us is a big time get for us and to be able to put players around Mathew (Stafford).

Jones could be a big find, at linebacker. The 6-2,230 pounder has a knack for the ball. He was the Gamecocks leading tackler in 2019 with 97 in the twelve games. In the shortened 2020 season he was team leader with 86 tackles in nine games including back to back games against (LSU) 19 and vs. Ole Miss 18.

“He got some interesting traits where he’s a long armed human being,” Rams GM Les Snead said. “That allows him to blitz use his hands to bat those longer tackles. He’s a tough guy to throw over and he’s really, really sound in zone coverage.”

Bobby Brown III from Texas A&M was a 4th round pick and the 117th overall selection. He considered a good run stopper who’ really excited to be on the field with Aaron Donald. ”It feels like an out of body experience,” said Brown.

The loss of Michael Brockers (Lions) and Morgan Fox (Carolina) gives Brown a big chance to show what he can do.

Other Ram picks include 4th round Robert Rochell CB from Central Arkansas. Jacob Harris WR Central Florida.

Earnest Brown DE Northwestern. Jake Funk RB, Maryland.

Ben Skowronek WR Notre Dame, Chris Garrett LB Concordia U-St Paul.

Courtside with Clippers – Week 19

By Cameron Buford whatsgoodinsports.com 5/6/21 (37-28) Los Angeles Lakers vs (44-22) Los Angeles Clippers As the NBA Season whines down, both the Los Angeles Clippers and the Los Angeles Lakers are positioning themselves for a significant playoff run. However, these teams are in slightly different situations going into this rival-ish matchup... The Clippers are looking to lock in the number #3 seed in the Western Conference. After losing three out four, and six of eight, of their previous games the defending champions Lakers are looking to stay out of the NBA’s play-in tournament.

Teams in both Western and Eastern Conference that finish in the seventh through tenth seed, will matchup in a tournament to kick off the NBA playoffs. Seeds seven and eight will play one game, as will seeds nine and ten. The winner of the seventh and eighth seed game will become the seventh seed of the conference playoffs. The loser of the seventh vs eighth seed game will play the winner of the ninth and tenth seed game for the remaining spot in the NBA playoffs, which begin on May 22, 2021.

The Lakers would be without, LeBron James who has missed 21 of their previous 23 games due to a high ankle sprain. Having missed 30 of the past 37 games, Anthony Davis was intent on preventing them from losing their seventh out of ten games.

Lakers coach Frank Vogel had the proper sentiment when he said.

“No one is feeling sorry for themselves. We know we’ve got to be better even under adverse circumstances.”

Anthony Davis would score the game’s first basket and give the Lakers their only lead of the game. After knocking down his second shot, Davis appeared to twist his ankle when he backed into the advertising stand, which is positioned along the sidelines of the court. This would be his final shot of the game as he would leave the game, shooting a mere 2-of-9, in the nine minutes that he played.

The Clippers, on the other hand, would play big down low win that first quarter 29-20… dominating the boards 14-7 in the first quarter of the game. They would take a commanding 13 point lead on the Lakers when Paul George hit a three-point shot with 7:59 remaining in the 2nd quarter.

The Clippers would go onto take a 23 point lead after the first half. This became their largest first-half lead of the season. By outscoring the Lakers bench 22-9 in the first half, the Clippers would establish their largest halftime deficit of the season.

After a couple of Kawhi Leonard free throws in the third quarter, the Clippers would push the lead up to 24 points late in the third quarter. In the fourth quarter, Terance Mann would get a tip in to push their lead up to 30 point game. In a controlling fashion, The Clippers improve to 11-0 when holding their opponent to under 100 points.

In his post-game media-availability Paul George talk about the makeup of the team, “It’s a good chemistry group. We want to see the next person do well. Every person on the bench, or the court, has the support of one another. It’s just great when we’re having fun: it’s contagious.”

5/9/21 (37-30) New York Knicks vs (45-22) Los Angeles Clippers It’s been over five months since these two teams met at Madison Square Garden, for their initial game of the season. The New York Knicks came to Staples Center to repay the Clippers for that beat down they receive a month into the season. The Knicks come into this game clinging to the 4th seed in the

Eastern Conference, while the Clippers are fairly secure as the third seed in the Western Conference.

The Knicks Julius Randle has been tremendous and depending on who you speak to; some even have them in their NBA MVP conversation. Over the past 10 games, Randle has been instrumental in the Knicks 7-3 record in this time frame.

They are also shooting 49.0% from the field and averaging 115.5 points per game. While grabbing over 42 rebounds per game, dishing out 23.2 assists per game, and getting 5.9 steals per game.

Though they are allowing their opponents to shoot 44.7% from the field, they are averaging 106.5 points per game.

The Clippers have struggled a bit in their past ten-game Clippers only winning 6-4 games. They have allowed their opponents to shoot 44.7% and average 106.5 points per game.

While they shot 47.1% from the field and averaged 109.7 points per game. Additionally, the Clippers are pulling down 44.6 rebounds, handing out 24.7 assists, getting 5.9 takeaways on average per game.

In their final home game of the regular season and the Clippers take an 8-0 lead before Thibodeau calls a time out with 9:31 remaining in the first quarter. The Knick responded with a 15 -6 run to tie the ball game up at 15. The teams exchanged leads before Ty Lue called a timeout after a Knicks fast-break layin gave them a 3-point lead. Nicolas Batum hits 2 unanswered three-pointers to give the Clippers lead 27-26, just before Rondo drives to the hoop and score a lay-up to close out the first quarter.

The Knicks did battle back to take the lead on a Reggie Bullock steal and lay-up before Paul George hits a couple of unanswered threes of his own to give the Clippers back the lead.

The Clippers have increased their lead to 9 points before Tom Thibodeau calls a timeout for the New York Knicks with 6:15 remaining in the second quarter.

The Knicks battled back to take a 2-point lead at the half.

Derrick Rose has scored a game-high 19 points and handed out a game-high 7 assist to the delight of the Knick’s fan in the building. Paul George, on the other hand, led the Clipper in the first half with 14 points and 5 assists.

Late in the third quarter, Reggie Bullock hits his 4th and 5th three-pointer and turns and stares at the Clippers bench each time, as if to say, “Are you guys going to guard me?” Bullocks’ 5th three-pointer of the game gave the Knicks a 79-69 lead with 2 minutes remaining in the quarter. Patrick Beverley knocks down a three-point shot with under 30 seconds to go in that 3rd quarter to narrow the Knicks lead to 5 points.

After the Clippers narrowed the lead to 5 points, Derrick Rose hit a three for his 25th point of the game. That would be the Knicks’ 13th three-pointer of the game and they were shooting 40% from deep to that point in the game.

The Knicks had a 6-point lead with under 2:00 to go in the game. Their aggressive and handsy play made things difficult for the Clippers on the offensive side of the ball. On the other hand, the Knicks never appeared concerned with the Clippers defense, as Julius Randle comfortably got the shot he wanted on to close out the game for the Knicks, as they got the win 106-100.

During his post-game media availability Kawhi Leonard had this to say about their loss, “You got to give the Knicks credit, they came in and fought hard. We did miss some wide ones (shots), sometimes we turned the ball over at costly moments, when were on a good run. We were in the mud a little bit on the offensive end. But overall you got to give the Knicks credit… with us we have to eliminate some of the turnovers and try to play with some kind of pace.”

5/11/21 (45-23) Los Angeles Clippers vs (27-41) Toronto Raptors As the Clippers head to Orlando to face the displaced Raptors to start their final road trip of the regular season, they do so with a 6-4 record over the past ten games. In the same time frame, they have allowed their opponents to shoot 45.2% have averaged 106.5 points per game. They also pulled down 44.6 rebounds, 24.5 helpers, and 5.8 takeaways on average, while shooting 46.9% and scoring 109.4 points per game.

Canada forced the Toronto Raptors to leave the country during this NBA season for COVID 19, as they would not permit them to continuously leave and return to the country when the NBA season started. In their past 10 games, the Raptors have allowed their opponents to shot 47.0% from the field and score 112.1 points per game. Playing on the road for essentially the entire season, the Raptors pulled down 42.5 rebounds, 25 helpers, 8.7 takeaways, all while they shoot 44.7% from the field and scoring 109.4 points per night on average.

With Patrick Beverley finally healthy, the Clippers would start a familiar line-up of Patrick Beverley, Paul George, Kawhi Leonard, Marcus Morris Sr., and Ivica Zubac. Although, we haven’t seen this line-up in a while, with this line-up they won the quarter by eight points. It didn’t take long for Rondo to surpass Maurice Cheeks for sole possession of 14th on the NBA’s all-time assists list when he dished out his 7,393rd career assist.

As a team, the Clippers controlled the boards 39 to 28 through the third quarter. Midway through that quarter, Patrick Beverley would pull down his 2,000 career rebounds, he finished the game with 6 rebounds in total. For the second quarter of the game, the Clippers limited the Raptors to score under 20 points in a quarter.

While Head Coach Ty Lue is still working on which line-up he likes the best, as the team gets healthier. Terance Mann, who hasn’t seen much playing time recently, was thrust into the lineup. Mann became the fifth player in franchise history with at least 20 points off the bench while shooting 100% from the field.

As a team, the Clippers shot a perfect 26-for-26 from the free-throw line. This is the sixth time this season for them, which is tied for the most games in the NBA. This ties them, for the second-most free-throws made without a miss in franchise history.

Health has been a major concern for the Clippers and it appears that they seem to be getting healthiest, just in time for the playoffs. As the players are regaining their health, there are still times where their play hasn’t been ideal. Head Coach Ty Lue said post-game, “I didn’t like the flow we had offensively… I didn’t like us offensively. Not so much the turnovers, just the flow of the game, it was kind of choppy.”

Because they are tinkering with the lineups and the players have played together sporadically; I think it’s good that the team is working through these issues now rather than in the playoffs?

Kindly share your thoughts on this team’s play down the stretch of this regular season. I look forward to hearing from you and feel free to reach out to me on Twitter @whatsgoodnsport or forward any suggestions on what additional topics or angles you’d like to see discussed to info@whatsgoodinsports.com.

If you haven’t done so, be sure to subscribe to our weekly “Voice of the Fans Podcast,” which is available for you on most podcasting platforms. Apple and Google Podcasts including Spotify, TuneIn, and, iHeart Radio to name a few. On our Podcast, we have passionate banter about various NBA storylines, while addressing the multitude of NFL topics.

Thursday, May 13, 2021

Los Angeles News Observer A7

Local

Hulu Scores Los Angeles Lakers Docuseries Today, Hulu announced that a new expansive, nine-part Original docuseries chronicling the history of the storied Los Angeles Lakers franchise will join the Hulu Originals lineup. The project comes to Hulu from Lakers’ CEO and controlling owner Jeanie Buss, Emmy® Award-winning director Antoine Fuqua, in association with Fuqua Films, as well as Haven Entertainment and Los Angeles Media Fund.

The series details the past four decades of the Lakers, and contains colorful and emotional new interviews from over 35 people within the organization, including the Buss family, legendary coaches Pat Riley and Phil Jackson, and NBA Hall of Famers Magic Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal and team captain Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, among numerous other current and former players. Also featured are interviews with a range of highprofile fans and a treasure trove of archival footage featuring never-before-seen interviews with the Lakers late owner, Jerry Buss.

Starting from his acquisition of the team in 1979, the docuseries captures Jerry Buss’ remarkable journey to build, sustain and pass on a family-run sports empire. The project will

(NBA.com photo)

offer a fresh and revealing look inside the legendary “Showtime” era that saw the team win five NBA titles and turned the Forum into Hollywood’s hottest ticket throughout the 1980s.

The series also details the high-stakes drama off the court and incredible successes of the Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal-led

championship teams, as well as the cultural impact of the Lakers franchise and rebirth of the team, culminating with the 2020 NBA championship led by LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

At the heart is a story about sports, business and, most of all, family – and how those competing forces must be harnessed to achieve greatness.

“When Dr. Buss bought the Lakers in 1979, he sat alone at center court of the Forum and thought of all the possibilities. But even in his wildest dreams, my father could not have imagined what the next decades would bring for our organization, our league and our city of Los Angeles. I am thrilled that the true story of the Lakers will finally be shared with the world -- and that we are in such capable hands with Hulu and Antoine, a director whose storytelling I’ve admired for years,” said Lakers’ CEO and controlling owner Jeanie Buss.

“We are proud to bring this docuseries to the world and shed light on the legendary history of the Lakers,” said Fuqua.

“This expansive look into one of the greatest sports franchises of all time is a project we all feel deeply passionate about.”

“The Los Angeles Lakers are one of sports’

most illustrious franchises. Theirs is a history of epic highs and tragic lows, and generations of legendary players and teams who have made a profound impact, not just on the sports world, but on the culture. We are honored to join Jeanie, Antoine and the whole creative team to bring Hulu viewers the very real inside look at the remarkable story of the rise and fall, and rise again of the Lakers,” said Belisa Balaban, VP, Original Documentaries, Hulu.

The series joins Hulu’s acclaimed Original documentary slate including “Hillary,” “I Am Greta,” “Minding the Gap,” “Ask Dr. Ruth” and official 2021 SXSW selections “WeWork: Or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn” and “Sasquatch.”

Buss and Fuqua will executive produce the series alongside Haven Entertainment’s Kevin Mann, Michael Mann and Brendan Bragg, Los Angeles Media Fund’s (LAMF) Jeffrey Soros and Simon Horsman and longtime Lakers senior executive Linda Rambis. Rounding out the team will be Emmy Award winners editor Jake Pushinsky and executive producer/writer Steven Leckart. The untitled project is slated to debut on Hulu in 2022.

Ex-NBA Coach Spreads the Word About Rare Heart Disease Affecting Blacks Antonio Ray Harvey California Black Media Don Chaney learned to play basketball while growing up in Baton Rouge, La. He became a skilled baller and played the game at the University of Houston. Then, he went on to have a successful career as a point guard -- and later a coach -- in the National Basketball Association (NBA).

At 75, when Chaney was retired and ready to settle down and enjoy his newfound leisure when he had to acquire knowledge about an issue that has nothing to do with sports and everything to do with healthy living.

In 2019, Chaney was diagnosed with hereditary Transthyretin Amyloid Cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM), a rare but life-threatening disease that can lead to heart failure. It disproportionately impacts African Americans.

Now, Chaney’s looks at raising awareness about the disease as a new style of coaching. He said the rare disease is something that “the average Black family” should take “extremely seriously.”

“It is a process. Every time I have an opportunity to bring it up and spread awareness about the disease, I try my best to do it,” Chaney told California Black Media (CBM) during a virtual interview. “The biggest thing is that the Black community has the highest rate of heart disease in the United States. Doctors are seldom aware of the fact that this particular disease exists. They don’t look for it. So, if you’re not looking for (ATTR-CM) you’re not going to get the correct diagnosis.”

ATTR-CM) is an underdiagnosed and potentially fatal disease, according to the American Heart Association, the nation’s oldest and largest voluntary organization dedicated to fighting heart disease and stroke.

The disease is characterized by deposits of amyloid protein fibrils in the walls of the left ventricle, the main pumping chamber of the heart. ATTR-CM, the amyloid protein is made of transthyretin, a protein found in the blood that transports important body fluids.

The amyloid protein deposits cause the heart walls to become stiff, resulting in the inability of the left ventricle to properly relax, fill with blood and adequately squeeze to pump blood out of the heart.

Dr. Kevin Williams, the Chief Medical Officer for Rare Disease at the biotechnology company Pfizer, says his research

shows that ATTR-CM’s symptoms are similar to those of more common causes of heart failure such as fatigue, shortness of breath, and swelling in the lower legs.

He also said that the symptoms are not commonly perceived to be linked to a heart condition — like carpal tunnel syndrome (numbness, tingling, or pain in the fingers), bicep tendon rupture, gastrointestinal issues (constipation, diarrhea, and nausea), and lumbar spinal stenosis (a narrowing of the open spaces in the lower spine).

“All of these factors can lead to delays in diagnosis or misdiagnosis,” said Williams, who is a Black medical doctor.

“In the African American community, it’s important to fully explore the underlying cause of these conditions with the help of a cardiologist.”

After his collegiate days at the University of Houston expired, Chaney was selected the 12th pick in the first round of the 1968 NBA Draft by the Boston Celtics. The Houston Mavericks of the American Basketball Association also drafted him that year.

A defensive specialist, Chaney won an NBA title with the Celtics in 1969 and 1974. After he retired in 1979, he spent 22 years coaching, including 12 years as a head coach in the NBA for the Los Angeles Clippers, Houston Rockets, Detroit Pistons, and New York Knicks.

Since 2004, Chaney has relatively enjoyed retirement, but his heart condition was always a concern. Fatigue, palpitations, shortness of breath, and swollen ankles were something he thought was years of physically playing the games of basketball.

He learned it was much deeper than the sports.

“I was dealing with all these issues, but I hadn’t really made all the connections,” Chaney told CBM. “I just assumed all the symptoms were from my years of pounding on the floor in professional basketball. I thought it was normal. If I had known this, I could have started treatment earlier.”

While he made numerous visits to the doctors to attend to his medical issues, Chaney said he started to “put the pieces” together after he began to share his family’s past with cardiologists.

Chaney’s mother and grandmother passed away due to heart disease. Back when they were alive, he recalled them complaining about having the same symptoms - fatigue, shortness of breath, swollen ankles and knees - he was experiencing.

“The symptoms are similar,” Chaney said. ‘When you throw in carpal tunnel syndrome along with fatigue and palpitations... that pushes you into another category. So, I had some tests and found out the scary part that it was hereditary. We went on to try to manage it from that point on.”

There are two types of ATTR-CM, wild-type, and hereditary.

Wild-type is thought to be the most common form of ATTRCM and is mostly associated with men over the age of 60.

Hereditary ATTR-CM is inherited from a relative and is due to genetics, affecting both men and women. In the U.S., the most common genetic mutation associated with hereditary ATTR-CM is found almost exclusively in people of African or Afro-Caribbean descent.

It took more than 10 years to receive the right diagnosis despite knowing his family’s history of heart failure and experiencing heart-related symptoms, Chaney said.

“It’s probably because African Americans don’t tell doctors everything that’s going on with them,” he said. “I’m guilty of it, too. They gave me some medicine but that didn’t really help much until they did further testing. It went beyond that. I actually had heart disease. You just have to tell your doctors everything.”

Awareness of ATTR-CM among both patients and some doctors remains low, which in Chaney’s case and many others, could lead to delayed or misdiagnosis. But if symptoms seem unrelated it is best to visit a primary care doctor or an experienced cardiologist to discuss ATTR-CM, Chaney said.

In the United States, Hereditary ATTR-CM occurs in African Americans (prevalent in approximately 1 in 25) and in older patients who may be misdiagnosed with high blood pressure-related heart disease.

Chaney said he is “stressed to a degree” because he also has been spending time to get his family into testing mode since the disease is hereditary. His sister’s and daughter’s tests came back negative. He’s still waiting on his sons to go through the process.

“They may not have it. But the disease is still present (in the family) and you could pass it down to your children,” Chaney said he has told members of his family. ‘I’m still going to press the issues to get them tested.”

While managing his ATTR-CM symptoms, Chaney spends time taking his grandchildren to NBA games in the Houston area.

He also restores antique automobiles, participates in horseback

riding, and is constantly testing his fishing skills.

His wife Jackie Chaney is now his primary caregiver and she is the one that calls the shots, he said.

“I do a lot of things within reason,” Chaney said. “I used to jump out of airplanes. But I don’t do that anymore. My wife monitors my condition, makes sure I see the doctor, and sees to it that I take my medication. I get a lot of help from a lot of people around here. I’m really enjoying my life.”

(Don Chaney courtesy photo)

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Los Angeles News Observer

Thursday, May 13, 2021

Three California Cities Push Plans to Increase Police Spending Aldon Thomas Stiles California Black Media Watching your tax dollars, elected officials and legislation that affects you.

It has been over 13 months since cops in Kentucky killed Breonna Taylor, and just shy of a year since Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd.

These high-profile deaths of African Americans, along with many others sparked global protests and resulted in politicians and activists on the political Left calling on their cities to and counties to defund their police departments.

More precisely, many of are pushing their elected officials to reallocate money in police budgets to more social serviceoriented interventions in efforts to reduce the number of violent police encounters.

But some cities in California -- Sacramento, San Diego and Los Angeles -- are planning to do just the opposite.

From 2019 to 2020, Sacramento’s approved police budget saw an increase of over $7 million. This year, California’s capital city will spend a record $165.8 million on police, a $9.4 million increase.

However, Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg says, by mid 2022, at least $10 million will be directed away from the police department toward the Department of Community Response.

“I’m not for ‘defunding,’” Steinberg told the Sacramento Bee. “There are some things that are part of running a city, like collective bargaining and binding arbitration, and genuine needs for the police department.”

“I’m not going to get pinned to the argument that the measure of whether or not we are investing in the community in an aggressive way is whether or not we’re taking the money directly from the police department,” he continued.

In San Diego, the city is planning to raise the police budget for the 11th year in a row.

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria proposed a 3% increase for police spending next year, meaning that the police budget has ballooned by a total of 52% since 2008.

The city is introducing that increase with a decrease in library hours in an effort to offset those costs.

San Diego City Council President Georgette Gómez says that she planned to cut the police budget but former

Mayor Kevin Faulconer would have vetoed that measure.

Gloria has expressed interest in reducing police spending over time also, but activists insist that more needs to be done.

In Los Angeles, after two reports from the Los Angeles City Council and the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners admonished the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) for their mishandling of several protests over the past year, the LAPD has announced that it wants a $67 million increase in its budget to contend with the costs of protest response reform.

During various protests in the summer of 2020, police made over 3,000 arrests with little to no accommodations for those arrested.

Police Chief Michel Moore admitted the protest response could have been handled better but asserted that most of his officers responded the way they did because of their training.

“While there were missteps and shortfalls in communication and command and control, especially from senior staff in the field, the vast majority of personnel performed admirably with their ongoing efforts to

Help for Home Buyers from A-1Realty

By Earl Heath Contributing Writer It’s been a tough year dealing with COVID-19. We were having to stay at home more than we wanted to. We had limited options on dinning out and many of us were unable to visit family and love ones as we wanted.

Some of us have reached a bit more normalcy and that means we can start back to reach for some of our dreams. If you own a home or thinking about moving into on a new one you should tune into a FREE online Homebuyers Seminar.

This possible life changing event is done by A1-Realty Saturday May 22, from 10am to 12:00 noon. Minorities are buying their own homes at a greater number than ten to fifteen years ago. So why not listen in and find out some of the many different ways to finance or refinance your home or even upgrade from your present one.

A-1 Realty owner Adrian Bates has been in the realty business for more than thirty years. She has brokered and sold thousands of homes and rental properties for businesses and families. This seminar can help you.

With her extreme knowledge she has been apart of sales in multiple California Counties including Kern County, Santa Barbara, San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Orange and Others. Even if you’re a first-time buyer you can be assisted.

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Send an EMAIL to: adrianbatesrealitor @gmail.com

Adrian Bates owner of A-1 Realty has been a super realtor for many communities more than 30 years. Sign up for the free seminar and get yourself into a home. (Photo: BMJ) (shutterstock photo)

tirelessly serve the city, even in the face of antagonistic and violent crowds,” Moore wrote in a letter to the board of commissioners.

Training will be the primary focus of this proposed budget increase, according to Deputy Chief Dominic Choi.

Choi stated that much of the budget will be going towards salaries and overtime for extended training.

The Police Commission has not moved on the proposed budget and the LAPD needs the City Council’s approval before it can go into effect. However, Mayor Eric Garcetti has proposed a $50 million increase in the police budget, much to the dismay of members of the Los Angeles Black Lives Matter organization.

While a couple of these budget proposals are still being deliberated and wouldn’t fully go into effect until next year, they are far cries from defunding the police.

Despite a growing chorus of voices against it, more Golden State taxpayer money will likely go toward increased funding for “California’s finest.”