Vol. 48 No. 44
February 22, 2018 - February 28, 2018
This publication is a Certified DBE/ SBE / MBE in the State of California CUCP #43264 Metro File #7074 & State of Texas File #802505971 “If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you -President Lyndon B. Johnson
Celebrating Black History Month
Editor in Chief’s Corner Email: sbamericannews@gmail.com Clifton Harris Publisher of The San Bernardino AMERICAN News
America Is Losing the Real Meaning of Black History Month Black History Month has never been just a celebration of black America’s achievements and stories — it’s part of a deliberate political strategy towards equal citizenship. Theodore Johnson
Black History Month Spotlight: Tanya Wallace-Gobern Alexandra Fenwick | February 15, 2018 Cross-posted from Time.
Tanya Wallace-Gobern, the Executive Director of National Black Worker Center Project. Traditionally, Black History Month is a time to reflect upon, acknowledge and honor Black leaders who significantly changed and influenced America’s history. Just as it is important to honor those who came before us, it is just as necessary to acknowledge and spotlight those who are social justice leaders today. NEO is committed to lifting up the voices of African American and other advocates of color who are our grantees and partners. NEO believes that the philanthropic sector must invest in the skills and leadership capacity of those who represent the diverse communities we serve. During Black History Month, we will profile a few of the many Black leaders and
NEO partners who are making waves in social justice. This post features Tanya Wallace-Gobern, the Executive Director of National Black Worker Center Project. The National Black Worker Center Project is a fiscally sponsored project of NEO Philanthropy. Tanya Most people are familiar with the phrase, “If you are doing what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.” Well, Tanya Wallace-Gobern is one of lucky ones doing just that. As the Executive Director of the National Black Worker Center Project, she is fulfilling her dream to serve and uplift the Black community. As a criminal justice and social work major in college, Tanya
fell into an internship at the Organizing Institute of the AFL-CIO right before graduation that changed her career trajectory. Tanya climbed the ladder and continued to work in advocacy and organizing for more than 20 years, but as time went on, she felt she was getting farther and farther from her calling – making a difference in the Black community. That is until she joined the National Black Worker Center Project. The National Black Worker Center Project focuses on supporting and incubating Black worker centers, providing education about the impacts of lowwage work and unemployment in the Black community. The Center works to prevent racial discrimination in the work place. Through national convenings, supporting their local affiliates and creating campaigns and initiatives to share the Black worker’s experience, Tanya and the National Black Worker Center Project are protecting the rights of unemployed and lowwage Black workers everywhere. While working on the Project’s national “Working While Black” campaign, Tanya realized the scope of Black workers facing discrimination was much bigger than the unemployed and lowwage workers she primarily focused on. While speaking to a man who worked in film in L.A. and earned a six-figure salary, he uttered words that would stick with her: “What about the rest of us?” Tanya thought, if you believe he shouldn’t be the kind of person the National Black Worker
Center Project should also focus on, you’d be wrong. Research shows the more educated or the higher the salary, the more opportunities there are for discrimination against Black workers. Tanya is working against the discrimination itself, as well as the fallacies that once Black workers reach a particular status or salary, they no longer encounter discrimination. As a Black worker herself, Tanya knows this to be true. That’s why it’s so important to her that she, and people who look like her, are at the forefront of the movement. She understands the people she serves aren’t waiting for a savior. What they are looking for is leadership development so they can become the leaders in their own movement. Although their focus is on Black workers, Tanya is clear that the work the National Black Worker Center Project does encompasses people of all races, economic status, religion and sexual orientation. “The work doesn’t end with us. It isn’t a poor person’s issue, or a Black person’s issue, or rich person’s issue, these are worker issues.” Tanya doesn’t think she can solve this problem any time soon, but that isn’t stopping her from trying. She believes the mere existence of her organization is a win for workers everywhere. To learn more about the National Black Worker Center Project, or get involved with an affiliate, please visit: https:// nationalblackworkercenters.org/.
Cold temperatures, snow, strong winds hitting SoCal By Veronica Miracle and Marc Cota-Robles
Temperatures near Gorman were at 26 degrees accompanied by strong winds GORMAN, Calif. (KABC) -After a mostly mild winter, a big chill has come to Southern California this week, with Monday being the coldest day. A winter weather and wind
advisory is in effect in some areas, with wind gusts up to 50 to 60 mph expected in the mountains and deserts. A hard freeze warning is in place for the valleys and Ventura County.
Temperatures in the mountains are expected to stay in the 20s on Monday and Tuesday, and drop as low as 10 degrees overnight. Areas like the windy Tejon pass are dropping down to
the lowest temperatures of the year and travelers are already feeling the chill. "It just cuts through your skin," said Kathy Ricossa, of Anaheim. "It feels like it's cutting right through. Biting." During these cold temperatures, residents in a West Hollywood apartment building experienced a hole in the roof after a large plank of wood came crashing through it from a construction site. No one was injured, but some people had to be moved out for some time. On Monday morning, temperatures near Gorman were at 26 degrees, accompanied by strong winds. Snow and ice was seen along Highway 18 in Big Bear, where Caltrans crews stayed busy, making sure the roadways were clear. Officials said chains may be required on Highway 38 as snow levels are expected to fall as low as 1,500 feet.
Since its inception, Black History Month has never been just a celebration of black America’s achievements and stories — it’s part of a deliberate political strategy to be recognized as equal citizens. Yet lost amid today’s facile depictions of Harriet Tubman’s Underground Railroad or George Washington Carver’s peanuts is black America’s claim as co-authors of U.S. history, a petition the nation has never accepted. This was the aim of Carter G. Woodson, a black historian and originator of Negro History Week in 1926. He believed that appreciating a people’s history was a prerequisite to equality. He wrote of the commemoration, “If a race has no history, if it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world.” That is, no amount of legislation can grant you equality if a nation doesn’t value you. This is the story of black America — underappreciated and perpetually experiencing trickle-down citizenship wherein progress only reaches us if the nation’s cup runneth over. There is no disputing that tremendous racial progress has occurred over the course of the nation’s history. And actions by the federal government are often cited as milestones of this evolution: the Emancipation Proclamation, constitutional amendments, Reconstruction Era edicts, Supreme Court cases and the Great Society legislation. Undoubtedly, if not for each of these, we never would have elected a black President or have more black members in Congress today than ever before. But we must remember that Black History Month exists to deliver what federal policy has not — the eradication of systemic racism. Yes, policy is important, but the state of black America today proves it is wholly insufficient on this score. We have Brown v. Board, and yet the racial segregation of public schools remains the norm. We have the Fair Housing Act, and racial segregation in housing has barely changed in nearly four decades. We have the Fifteenth Amendment and a Supreme Court-weakened Voting Rights Act, and yet state laws still implement measures that disproportionately affectblack voters. Black unemployment remains at twice the rate of white
Americans. Black median wealth is nearly ten times less than white wealth. Black Americans are incarcerated at a rate five times that of their white countrymen. And black health continues to be worse on nearly every front — heart disease, asthma, infant mortality, diabetes — and the racial gap cancer deaths is widening. These are not just problems of U.S. policy but of the American character. If we deemed this disparate black experience in America to be unacceptable, the country would have undertaken a massive federal program to address it specifically. But it has not, because black life is viewed as an expendable character in the American narrative. Black History Month was aimed squarely at this harsh truth. It was crafted to compel recognition by a stubborn nation of the inimitable and invaluable role black people have played in the creation and sustainment of the United States. It is 28 days of political strategy to recast depictions of the nation’s black population as inherently and completely American. It is the reframing of the age-old rhetorical questions posed by Sojourner Truth (“Ain’t I a woman?”) and abolitionists (“Am I not a man and a brother?”): Are we not Americans and citizens? If we look at the challenges facing black Americans, the answer to that question is unsatisfactory. And deep down, the nation knows it. Though nearly three in four Americans agree that race relations are bad, we see the issue quite differently. Nearly five times as many white Americans as black ones say the U.S. has already made the changes necessary to give black people equal rights — while four times as many black Americans as white ones believe we will never make those fixes. And yet, six in ten Americans say that racism against black people is widespread. It is much more comforting to believe that resolving the race issue is a simple matter of black people assuming more personal responsibility, combined with better policy. But good behavior has never released a people from oppression, not even the Founding Fathers. And without a change in how the na(continued on page 8)
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