Racism Plays Role in Premature Birth Among Black Americans
39-Year Old Becomes 1st Black Head Football Coach at USC
News Observer Page A8
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Los Angeles
Volume 36 Number 47
Serving Los Angeles County for Over 36 Years
Observer Group Newspapers of Southern California
Black Women Leaders Promise to “Provide Cover” for Rep. Karen Bass in LA Mayoral Race Tanu Henry California Black Media Last week, Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA-37) announced that she is running to be the first woman mayor of Los Angeles – and the second African American to serve as CEO of California’s largest city. A few days later, an influential group of about 45 civic, political, academic and business leaders called the California Black Women Collective joined hands on a Zoom call for what the meeting’s host Kellie Todd Griffin called “a party” to support the mayoral candidacy of the sitting, six-term U.S. Congresswoman. Griffin, the Senior Vice President of Communications and External Affairs at the California Health Medical Reserve Corps, is a Los Angeles area-based organizer and entrepreneur known in California’s political circles for her outspoken advocacy for African American issues. “It will be a victory. We are claiming it right now,” said Dezie Woods-Jones, talking about Bass’s mayoral run. Woods Jones, a Bay Area political strategist is president of Black Women Organized for Political Action (BWOPA), the oldest African American political organization in the state.
“I am really proud of Black women who always make a difference in elections. I like to come back and remind us that sometimes we don’t brag enough about ourselves,” Woods-Jones continued, referring to the fact that African American women are the most loyal voting bloc in Democratic electoral politics across the country. “We should not be embarrassed to say that we have been the people who have, across the board, come to the forefront and made a difference. We consistently show up and show out.” After praising Bass for her ability to negotiate with her colleagues and build coalitions across racial, ethnic, cultural and other lines that may divide Americans, Woods Jones announced BWOPA’s official endorsement of Bass. Looking back at her experience working as Bass’ chief of staff when she was a California Assemblymember representing the 47th District in Southern California, Nolice Edwards praised Bass for her accomplishments, including her election as Speaker of the state Assembly from 2008 to 2010. Bass said one reason she decided to run for the Assembly was the fact that there were no Black women serving in the state legislature at the time. Continued on page A2
Chairwoman Karen Bass, D-Calif., speaks during a House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security on “Oversight of the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the U.S. Marshals Service” in Washington on Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2020. (Photo by Caroline Brehman/CQ Roll Call via AP Images)
Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp Suffer Outages after Whistleblower Goes Public
Mark Zuckerberg, President and CEO of Facebook
By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent Just one day after a whistleblower claimed that Facebook is aware of how its used to spread hate, violence and misinformation, Facebook suffered major outages on Monday, October 4. Instagram and WhatsApp – both owned by Facebook – also were shuttered. “We’re aware that some people are having trouble accessing our apps and products,” Facebook officials wrote on Twitter. “We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, and we apologize for any inconvenience.” The tracking site, Down Detector, reported “tens of thousands of reports for each of the services.” While Facebook would load on Monday; Instagram and WhatsApp were only accessible for viewing. Users couldn’t load content or send messages. The problems surfaced – coincidentally, or not – after Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen made her claims on “60 Minutes.” She said Facebook worked to hide evidence that individuals and entities used the site to spread hate, push violence and misinformation. Facebook has denied those claims.
California Setting Standard for Voting Rights in America Antonio Ray Harvey California Black Media California Secretary of State Shirley Weber has until Oct. 14 to certify the results in the gubernatorial recall election held Sept 14. Her announcement will officially confirm that a majority of voters want Gavin Newsom to remain governor. While the certification process plays out, Weber and her office will continue to keep Californians informed about their voting rights with the 2022 General Election in full view, she said. A day after Newsom signed a first-in-the-nation bill that now makes vote-by-mail ballots permanent in California, Weber showed up at Fresno State University in the Central Valley with civil rights activist Dolores Huerta. They were there to discuss ways to make the democratic process more accessible by enfranchising more voters. Weber said steps California has taken to protect and expand voting rights are in contrast with some of the actions several states across the country have taken that appear to be restricting their citizens’ right to vote. “We want to open this franchise to everyone but in the midst of all of that, I am consciously aware that your President (Joe Biden) mentioned that there is a national movement heading in a different direction than California is going,” Weber said. “That national movement is to restrict voting. Restrict voting opportunities.” Last week, Newsom signed into law Assembly Bill (AB) 37, authored by Assemblymember Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park). That bill requires a voteby-mail ballot to be mailed to every registered voter in the state. He also signed a package of other legislation intended to increase voter access and strengthen integrity in California elections. “As states across our country continue to enact undemocratic voter suppression laws, California is increasing voter access, expanding voting options, and bolstering elections integrity and transparency,” Newsom said. “Last year, we took unprecedented steps to ensure all voters had the opportunity to cast a Continued on page A2
FILE - In this June 10, 2020, file photo, Assemblywoman Shirley Weber speaks at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif. The state of California is spending $16 million on a four-week blitz using billboards, radio and digital ads to educate people about how to vote in the recall election that could remove Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom from office. Weber, a Democrat and now California’s Secretary of State, says she hopes to see 100% participation in the recall. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)
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Florida Library Offering AntiRacism Kits
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) – A Florida library is offering anti-racism kits in hopes of making it easier to broach difficult conversations about race in a meaningful way. The Volusia County Public Library made the kits available for checkout on Friday. Each kit centers a discussion around a book and is geared for different age groups from kindergarten to adults. The library received a $3,000 grant from Florida Humanities to launch the project. “I think what the staff are hoping to see is civil discourse,” librarian Melissa Reynolds told The Daytona Beach News-Journal.
Lawsuit: Black Base Worker Told to Keep Quiet By MEAD GRUVER Associated Press CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) – A Black civilian grounds-keeping and kitchen worker at a U.S. Air Force base in Wyoming was retaliated against and ultimately fired for complaining when other workers called him racial epithets, a lawsuit said. A supervisor told Bryan Wheels to keep quiet about the racial harassment, which began soon after he was hired in 2015 and continued through 2017, said the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lawsuit against Spokane, Washington-based Skils’kin. After laying off Wheels in December 2017, Skils’kin didn’t follow its practice of honoring his seniority by rehiring him that winter. Instead, the nonprofit gave a job to a less-senior white employee, the EEOC said in its lawsuit filed Monday in Wyoming U.S. District Court in Cheyenne. The company didn’t offer a Wheels a job the following spring, either, the lawsuit said. “It’s quite concerning how egregious the conduct was and that the employer didn’t take care of it,” EEOC regional attorney Mary O’Neill said Thursday. “There’s such a low percentage of African Americans in Wyoming. We worry when there’s very few African Americans in the workplace and there’s hostility like this.” Wheels was the only Black member of the Skils’kin contract crew at F.E. Warren Air Force Base, which oversees 150 Minuteman nuclear missiles in underground silos in Wyoming, Nebraska and Colorado. Skils’kin hires people for contract business and government jobs in Wyoming, Washington and Montana, according to the company’s website. The nonprofit subjected Wheels to “severe and persistent racial harassment,” the lawsuit said. At one point, after Wheels complained about a coworker’s racist comments, a supervisor put him on a two-man grounds crew with the worker who made the remarks, the lawsuit said. The EEOC sought to negotiate an out-ofcourt settlement with Skils’kin but was unsuccessful, according to the federal agency. Phone messages left Wednesday with Skils’kin and F.E. Warren Air Force Base seeking comment on the lawsuit weren’t immediately returned.
NASA’s Astronauts No Longer Exclusive to White Men By BRENDAN FARRINGTON Associated Press TALLAHASSEE (AP) – Being an astronaut is no longer an exclusive club of white men, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said Friday while telling students that the first woman and first person of color will be landing on the moon soon. Nelson told a group of middle school students and Florida A&M-Florida State College of Engineering students that unlike the Apollo missions to the moon, the return under the Artemis Program will be lead by a diverse group of astronauts. “The astronaut corps looks a lot different. They’re not all white male test pilots, Now they’re women and they’re people of color and they’re PhDs and they’re medical doctors and they’re scientists,’’ Nelson said. “It’s faces just like your faces. The faces of America.’’ The students applauded enthusiastically at the idea. Nelson, 79, was serving as a Democratic congressman when he launched aboard space shuttle Columbia on Jan. 12, 1986. He later served three terms in the U.S. Senate. Nelson talked about using moon dust as a material to make concrete and build structures on the moon. He envisioned it as a “gas station’’ for rockets on missions to Mars, tapping into frozen water on the orb’s south pole and converting it to hydrogen and oxygen for fuel. In an interview with The Associated Press, Nelson said the recent rocket flights to space by billionaires Elon Musk, Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos, combined with images from the Mars rover, have created a new excitement about space. “There has been unusual press attention to these things ... That galvanizes America’s attention and gets them excited about space,” Nelson said. “The novelty of these space tourists going up in an automated SpaceX capsule, all of that combined is an addition to making space more accessible to the average Joe.’’ Though he said the average Joe won’t be going up in space any time soon. “It’s going to be a long time because it’s still expensive to go into space, but you’ve got to start somewhere,’’ Nelson said.