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Reparations for Black Residents...

Continued from page 3 of the atrocities experienced by Black Americans.

African American Museum.

“African Americans in Los Angeles are overrepresented in homelessness and underrepresented in generational wealth. It is the result of a system that has denied African Americans the ability to fully exercise their God-given liberties,” said RAC Chairperson Michael Lawson at the meeting.

Lawson is the CEO and president of the L.A. Urban League.

“Our task (AARAC) was to do the appraisal, and it’s the city’s task to determine, based upon recommendations, what they decide to adopt,” McDonnell said.

In 2020, after the murder of George Floyd, San Diego established the Department of Race and Equity (DRE) to address disparities experienced by individuals in the city.

Trump Pleads Not Guilty...

Continued from page 2

But maybe he should. And fast.

The Commission will consist of 13 voting members – five will be selected by the Board of Supervisors; four will be selected by outside organizations (the Alameda County League of Women Voters, a member from a disability rights organization, a member from a voting rights organization, and a member from the ACLU of Northern California); and four at-large members representing impacted communities will be nominated by the Commission.

The Board of Supervisors intends to begin making appointments to the Commission at the August 1, 2023 Board meeting.

Those who are interested in being appointed to the Elections Commission should submit an application via the County’s Boards, Commissions, & Committees online portal: acgov.org/bnc/#/home.

The link for the new commission is expected be live and available to accept applications by the week of June 19.

Melissa Male is the communications manager for Alameda County District 5 Supervisor Keith Carson.

“The closure needed is a mutual recognition of the wrongs that have been meted upon the members of the victimized community. I am grateful to everyone who joined us as we take this step forward together,” he added.

In December 2020, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed an ordinance establishing the 15-member San Francisco African American Reparations Advisory Committee (AARAC).

Over the course of two years, AARAC developed a San Francisco Reparations Plan that addresses institutional and city-sanctioned wrongdoings against Black communities in San Francisco.

AARAC specifically focuses on improving different aspects of Black life, including education, housing, workforce development, economic opportunities, financial stability, small businesses, access to public transit, and food security.

The committee is committed to reducing violence, addressing health disparities and preventing over-criminalization of African Americans.

In March, AARAC presented to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors more than 100 recommendations, including a proposal to pay each qualifying Black city resident a one-time lump sum reparation payment of $5 million.

In an interview with San Francisco’s KRON 4 News on March 24, Eric McDonnell, the chairperson of AARAC, stated that the recommendations are an estimation

This initiative was led by San Diego City Councilmember Monica Montgomery-Steppe, who is a member of the state’s reparations task force.

Last year, the city of Sacramento began developing a municipal reparations initiative committed to “truth telling and trust building” called the Sacramento Centered on Racial Equity (SCORE) plan.

SCORE is designed to interrupt patterns and processes rooted in dominant cultural patterns that perpetuate systemic racism and racial hierarchy within the city.

Betty Williams, president of the Sacramento branch of the NAACP, praised the work SCORE has started but she wants to further expand discussions on reparations for the Sacramento Black community.

“I want an outreach team to go out in the community to ask the critical question: ‘Do you want a (reparations) task force and what should it look like?’” Williams told California Black Media.

“That’s the discussion I’ve had with Mayor (Darrell) Steinberg on how to put something like this together. It’s not just monetary. Education, housing, small business — all of those things should be part of the recommendations and of what reparations should look like for Black Sacramentans.” don.

Nauta reportedly told his family in Guam he did nothing wrong, and just did as directed by Trump.—He carried Trump’s boxes out of a storage room, 64 at first, but then brought back only 30. Was he hiding the balance so they couldn’t be retrieved and returned to the National Archives?

Nauta is seen on video moving boxes. In an interview, he contradicts the video. The video doesn’t lie.

That’s loyalty to Trump. But was Nauta any worse than the most ardent—Trump supporter– AAPI or not–who continues to cheer Trump?

It pained me to see how Nauta was snarked at, from the pronunciation of his name in some form of Anglicized “Nata,” to the sniping references like “glorified pool boy” as one national anchor called him.

Nauta must be used to that kind of disrespect as a native Guamanian. By virtue of being from a federal territory, you are a U.S. citizen. But you can’t vote. You can, however, serve in the military.

Nauta, who enlisted in the Navy as a teenager in 2001, rose up the ranks to one of the prized jobs among the non-commissioned ranks, the naval steward spot in the White House. You’re serving the commander-in-chief.

And that man, Trump, likes you.

In some ways Nauta is the ideal “body man.” Guamanians can’t even vote for president. It gives them an urgency and purity of loyalty and service just to prove their existence. By their care, they matter.

Nauta wasn’t a sycophant. It was his honor to do his job.

Maybe that’s why he hasn’t flipped yet.

Ty Cobb, a former White House attorney who described himself as a friend of Nauta, told CNN that Nauta not having his own attorney is “a tragedy of the highest proportion.”

Nauta moved boxes at least five times, according to the indictment. It said that he loaded them up on a Trump plane. That he discovered a spilled box with top secret documents of the U.S.’s top five allies. And he took a picture of the spilled box and shared it via cell phone.

That’s a serious felony allegation. No one on the Trump legal team, nor did Nauta’s lawyer, paid for by a Trump PAC, told Nauta to get his own lawyer or to cooperate with the feds.

It’s in Trump’s best interest to control Nauta until he no longer needs him. And Nauta is an ideal co-conspirator. He always feels beholden. He’s trapped by Trumppaid lawyers.

But reality might sink in as Trump was described looking dejected in that solemn federal courtroom in Miami on Tuesday as his lawyers pleaded not guilty for him. And what of Nauta — assumed to be a retired enlisted Navy man –being willing to go down with the ship? His Trump PAC guy couldn’t enter a plea because he wasn’t a Florida attorney.

Perfect time to lawyer up.

I say, “Flip, Waltine, Flip.”

You know the truth. Tell it. Make a deal with the feds.

Save your hide, save America. Save democracy.

Emil Guillermo is a veteran journalist and commentator. See his reality talk show at www.amok. com

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