OpEd

EDITORIAL

It’s Only a Myth, Not Historical Fact – Columbus Did Not Discover America

How many of you remember a popular rhyme which children learned in the first years of school which went something like this: “In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue?”

The saying, which for decades held a prominent place within the canon of recitations that were memorized by every child during their primary grades, served as an integral part of America’s myth behind our nation’s origins. It essentially posited the “historical fact” that North America – specifically the United States, owed its “discovery” to the ingenuity of the Italian explorer – the first reported European to land on our shores after traveling the Atlantic Ocean with his crew on three ships: the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa María.

And so, Columbus would soon be lauded as the man who ushered in a new era in human history with statues later erected in his honor and even a national holiday designated to mark his accomplishments.

Ironically, historians, either through human error or by design, would fail to note that North America had previously been “discovered” by someone else – people of whom we today refer as Native Americans. Perhaps they failed to make U.S. history books because their skin color did not meet the more “preferred” global standard from yesteryear: “white.”

Still, history, by its definition, must not only provide an undisputed record and analysis of past events, but must also be flexible enough to allow for updates or revisions upon the discovery of new details or additional events that further clarify or expand narratives. Fortunately, many more Americans recognize the necessity of reporting and repeating history which is undergirded by facts rather than myths, especially those that have since been proven to be false.

Perhaps that’s why Columbus Day, in recent years, has given way in a growing number of U.S. cities, counties and states to Indigenous People’s Day – a counter-celebration which honors Native Americans and commemorates their histories and cultures, still observed on the second Monday of October. Nonetheless, Columbus Day remains a federal holiday, further perpetuating a myth that no longer bears any resemblance to the truth.

In holding fast to this narrative which seems to affirm white supremacy, Donald Trump shared his thoughts on Monday, Oct. 12, railing against those who would dispute the myth of Columbus as “radical activists” and “extremists.”

“Rather than learn from our history, this radical ideology and its adherents seek to revise it, deprive it of any splendor and mark it as inherently sinister,” Trump said.

The Washington Informer finds his summation to be disheartening which further contributes to the disavowal of America’s history that has been shaped due to our uniquely diverse population of citizens. Further, we disagree with the president’s assertion that by adhering to the truth, such Americans are willingly “spreading hate and division.”

Here’s the history lesson for today: Columbus did “not” discover America. WI

A Life-Line for D.C.’s Unemployed Workers

The District’s unemployment rate continues to rise due to COVID-19, with August’s preliminary job estimates showing a loss of 13,900 for a total of 740,500 jobs. In September, the D.C. Department of Employment Services (DOES) reported a loss of 6,300 private-sector jobs and 7,600 jobs in the public sector. These numbers not only paint a dark picture of the state of unemployment in the District, but they also speak to the overall financial toll the pandemic is having on thousands of District unemployed workers across all eight wards, and the ability of one local agency to manage it.

A lifeline for unemployed workers exists, but many are unaware of the D.C. unemployment compensation programs managed by DOES available to them. For example, workers who received unemployment compensation but reached the end of their initial 26 weeks of benefits may still be eligible for an additional 13-week extension. Yet, in D.C., they must apply, unlike in other states where the extension is automatic. Also, there is the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) for self-employed individuals seeking part-time employment, or who otherwise would not qualify for regular unemployment compensation. According to the Department of Labor, to qualify for the 39-week compensation program, one must not be eligible for regular unemployment benefits and be unemployed, partially

Up for Debate

I wanted to know if The Washington Informer ever thought about hosting a debate for those running for office locally? I think it would be great to have our Black newspaper give Black ward candidates a chance to speak specifically to our issues unapologetically. I think this will do the community a lot of good when it comes to being informed as voters.

Betty Rogers

Washington, D.C.

unemployed, or unable or unavailable to work because of certain health or economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. But who knows this?

At-Large Councilmember Elisa Silverman, chair of the Committee on Labor and Workforce Development, held a public hearing last month with DOES officials to review their response to the COVID-19 public health emergency. She followed up this week with a letter to Director Unique Morris-Hughes in which she stated, “One of the major takeaways from the testimony is that DOES communications need to be strengthened to help claimants better un-

TO THE EDITOR

A Wealth of Economic Info

I truly received valuable information from the Financial Supplement. There was a lot about “new age banking” that I didn’t know and I’m glad I took the time to read and find out more. Financial info is especially important at this time as the pandemic has done a number on many of our finances.

Jillian Fletcher

Laurel, Md.

derstand both how programs work and how to engage with DOES to iron out issues with their claims.”

Workers, she said, “are relying on these funds to survive.” And, she’s correct. We don’t know how long this pandemic will last, nor do we know how much longer these programs will be available to provide much-needed life-support to local workers. What we do know is that the resources are there now, and we support Councilmember Silverman’s persistence in ensuring DOES is fully engaged in informing and meeting the needs of the District’s unemployed workers. WI

OPINIONS/EDITORIALS

Guest Columnist

By Julianne Malveaux

Monsters are Scary. So Are Brilliant Black Women

I was frightened of monsters when I was a child. Not so sure why, but my brother, who loved to plague me, used to tell me they were lurking under my bed. I shook, and I shivered, and I cried for fear that one of those dreaded monsters would rise from under the bed to strangle me. I don’t know what got me over my fear of monsters. Perhaps I realized that my brother got perverse pleasure

“Today’s failure to deliver badly needed fiscal assistance to cities of all shapes and sizes is going to amount to increased job losses, decreased public safety and a greatly impaired economic recovery. Cities across the country have been struggling with budget shortfalls for months as a direct result of the pandemic, and hundreds of bipartisan mayors have been echoing the

The virus is “coming from inside the White House,” blared the latest headline from The Atlantic, one of a multitude of news organizations to cover the surreal events surrounding President Donald Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis and subsequent behavior.

“Asking whether the celebration of Amy Coney Barrett’s [U.S. Supreme Court] nomination was a ‘suby mocking me. In any case, one day, he told me that there was a monster under my bed, and I laughed in his face. And the monster myth lost its hold on me.

I got over my fear of monsters, but Donald John Trump is holding on to his fear of his. His demons are brilliant Black women, like Congresswomen Maxine Waters and Fredericka Wilson. He ridicules anyone who opposes him, but he saves his tartest barbs for Black women. We are his monsters, the folks lurking under his bed, inside his consciousness, willing call to congressional and administration leaders for an economic lifeline in the form of immediate flexible fiscal relief. The victims of today’s failure will be the American people — residents in cities across the country — led by Republicans, Independents and Democrats — who will see critical services further reduced or eliminated entirely.” — U.S. Conference of Mayors

On the same day that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned that the U.S. economy would face “tragic” consequences without additional fedperspreader’ event misses the point: Trump’s irresponsibility made this crisis likely,” The Atlantic continued.

In his motorcade around Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, Trump’s ill-advised ride raised alarm bells inside and out of the White House and is only one incident in many that points to an administration in disarray.

Dr. Sean Conley, who heads the White House medical team, told reporters that doctors had begun treating the president with dexamethasone, a steroid that the medical experts

Guest Columnist

to call him out. According to one dictionary definition, monsters are “a type of grotesque creature, whose appearance frightens and whose powers of destruction threaten the human world’s social or moral order. A monster can also be like a human, but in folklore, they are commonly portrayed as the lowest class, as mutants, deformed, supernatural, and otherworldly.” Monsters, threatening the white male social order. Monsters like the Democratic vice presidential nominee, Sen. Kamala Harris.

I wrap myself in the epithet of

By Marc H. Morial

eral stimulus, President Trump announced there would be no stimulus until after the election.

“I have instructed my representatives to stop negotiating until after the election when, immediately after I win, we will pass a major Stimulus Bill that focuses on hardworking Americans and Small Business,” he tweeted.

In response to his recklessness, the stock market plummeted.

He immediately backtracked, calling for a bill that would land $1,200 checks emblazoned with his name in

By Stacy M. Brown

said is usually reserved for those with the most severe cases of COVID-19.

Information from the World Health Organization (WHO) notes that dexamethasone can suppress the immune system and is “potentially harmful for patients who take it too early” after their COVID-19 diagnosis.

Trump announced a positive test on Oct. 1 and, within two days, began the steroid treatment.

“Trump’s dexamethasone drug is risky if used early,” tweeted Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding, epidemiologist and health

monster. Like Harris, I am an otherworldly woman who isn’t supposed to be a Black woman economist. I live to destroy the white male social order; I reject the notion that I am the “lowest social class” or “deformed.” And I embrace the idea of being supernatural and otherworldly. With the roll of my neck, the cut of my eyes, the arch of my brows, I can turn an ignorant white man into New Orleans blanc mélange, just like Senator Harris did a bland Mike Pence when they “debated.”

No wonder the best the Orange voters’ mailboxes days before they cast their ballots, still refusing to entertain a comprehensive aid package.

“All the president wants is his name on a check,” said Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. “We’re here to honor our heroes, crush the virus, put money in the pockets of the American people beyond a check with his name on it.”

Last week, the House passed an updated version of the HEROES Act that includes support for small businesses; invests in testing, tracing, and treatment; and provides direct payments of economist. “The WHO warns that this drug used by Trump is a powerful anti-inflammatory for ‘severely ill and critical patients,’ and can also increase viral replication too and make COVID-19 worse.”

Richard Stengel, an undersecretary of state in President Barack Obama’s administration and an editor at Time, suggested that Trump’s condition may have approached a fatal point.

“I’m not a doctor, but throwing an experimental antibody cocktail, plus dexamethasone, plus remdesivir, plus supplemental oxygen all at the same Man could come up with was to describe our precious California Senator as a “monster.” No wonder that the best he could do was to describe her as frightening. In so describing her, he revealed his own fright, his fright of a woman so capable, so marvelous that he cowers in the wake of her brilliance. He cringes, and his vice president appears more afraid, so much so that he is too intimidated to allow her to finish a sentence, interrupting her twice as often as she

Trump Turns His Back on Struggling Americans, Small Businesses, State and Local Governments

MALVEAUX Page 45 $1,200 per taxpayer and $500 per dependent. Notably, it includes support for state and local governments — a sticking point for an administration that still thinks it can sabotage Democratic governors and mayors by withholding aid, even as the virus wrecks the economies of Republican-run states and cities as well.

Right now, 26 million Americans are receiving unemployment insurance — payments which were drastically

Guest Columnist

A (White) House in Pandemic Cannot Stand

MORIAL Page 45 time suggests the house was on fire and they had to put it out. Not one of the 7 million Americans infected got the same treatment,” Stengel determined.

Dr. Megan Ranney, an emergency physician at the Rhode Island Hospital and an associate professor at Brown University, said dexamethasone could cause psychosis and mania. She also called some of Trump’s behavior, such as the joyride around Walter Reed, “certainly concerning.”

BROWN Page 45

Guest Columnist

By Barrington M. Salmon

Pushing Back Against NIMBY — Replacing Fear with Facts

The fear and concern the prospect of a reentry facility coming into one’s neighborhood elicits are understandable and normal. Safety is a primary consideration. The idea that someone who was recently behind bars may be living next door can be jarring and unnerving. Our minds often go to the worst-case scenario whether what we’re stewing on is real or imagined.

The social ferment we’re seeing in Louisville, Kenosha and many other parts of America is fueled by more than a legitimate revulsion over systemic racism as manifested in discriminatory policing. It has broader underpinnings, led by widespread frustrations with economic inequality.

We believe a substantial portion of Americans, and not just communities of color, support stronger government efforts to narrow these inequality gaps

If the life we’re living in real time in the U.S. today was a fictional horror movie, it might star Vincent Price as the madman, Donald J. Trump. Washington, 2020 is like Price’s film “The House of Wax,” a 1953 classic which comes from the era to which the Trumpster would like to Make America Like Again. In the gory end of the movie, the monster’s wax face melts in a

Another key factor to consider is economic. For example, there is an abiding belief that placing a reentry center in Washington, D.C.’s Ward 7 will have an adverse economic impact on property values and the ward’s economic well-being.

Actually, there are several studies which show just the opposite of this line of thinking. The facts are clear, as demonstrated by decades of research: facilities like reentry centers that provide support to underserved populations do not decrease property values. and create a world that works for everyone. And we have survey data to prove it.

For instance, we’ve found that most Americans support guaranteeing a job for those able and willing to work; suspending rent and mortgage payments (without requiring repayment) for the remainder of this pandemic-wracked year; expanding the Child Tax Credit to provide a refund for children in all low-income families; and mandating fiery salvation for mankind.

Like “Wax” or “The Blob,” — where a gelatinous mound crawls the countryside, consuming white suburbanites and growing bigger with each conquest — every really horrible horror movie requires a morally reprehensible villain, who lives only for his own survival, his own gluttony, which puts humanity at-large in grave danger. The Donald is just such a loathsome specimen.

The monster must be repugnant to the core and visually displeasing, so that whenever it appears on screen, creepy

In one study, researchers reviewed the impact of a leading recovery home provider that offers drug and alcohol support services at 154 locations throughout the U.S. The study found that “no evidence of property devaluation was found” and that “community members … actually saw an increase in property value over an average of 3 years.”

The study, titled, “Counteracting ‘Not in My Backyard,’” is found in the Journal of Community Psychology.

Resistance to housing for ex-offendthat employers follow fair hiring practices that remove barriers to employing people with a criminal history after they have served their sentences.

These are among the findings from a nationwide survey of 1,000 adults, and an additional oversample of 400 Black adults, conducted Aug. 28-Sept 1 by Lake Research Partners. It was commissioned by the Othering & Belonging Institute at the University of California at Berkeley and Prosperity Now. The over-sampling of Blacks is needed to obtain statistically reliable results for a group typically underrepresented in surveys. music is heard automatically, and our first instinct is to turn and look away from it. Check.

In zombie movies, or invasion of pod-creature movies, the villain appears to be a normal human, while he is a secret “superspreader,” infecting normal people, turning them into beings infected by his essence, which has an odd, alien name, like COVID-19. But we, the viewers see the dastardly scheme, and root for its destruction. Check.

But what Hollyweird writer would ever have been so clever as to disguise ers, recovering addicts and others is a pervasive problem despite research documenting favorable outcomes for individuals living in recovery residences. A key to breaking down that resistance is to replace fear with facts, invite neighbors to see the reentry space, familiarize them with the facility’s operations and develop open communications and transparency.

Another way to engender community confidence is to partner with trusted stakeholders, advocacy groups and individuals who can vouch for the op-

Th survey found substantial support for a range of possible reforms. The idea of increasing taxes on large corporations to provide grants to Black entrepreneurs was backed by 68 percent of Black respondents, 51 percent of Latinx and 43 percent of white respondents. Also, 71 percent of Blacks support providing payments to Black Americans as restitution for slavery and generations of discriminatory policies, while 24 percent of whites do.

The survey found widespread support, across all ethnic groups, for police reforms that might avert future atrocithe monster as the POTUS — president of the United States — and make his infected wife a former nude model who snuck into the country on a fake visa and then tricked the Immigration and Naturalization Service into granting her citizenship, while smuggling her entire family into the country as well? Brilliant.

But truth is stranger than fiction, and we do have a super-spreader, Coronavirus-in-Chief occupying the highest office in the land. He decrees maddening executive orders and brandishes the erators of the home and calm residents’ fears about safety and other issues.

Researchers in the Journal article argue convincingly, too, that disseminating research findings in forums outside of professional and academic spheres to a broad array of stakeholders is critical. Including policymakers, service providers, professionals, researchers, consumers, and the general public is a critical tool to influence policy, they say.

Circulating studies that illustrate the

Guest Columnist

By John A. Powell and Gary L. Cunningham

America is Ready for a More Equitable Economy and Society

SALMON Page 46 ties such as the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. It showed that nearly three-fourths of Black Americans, two-thirds of Latinxs, and three-fifths of whites said they would place a high priority on “having community-resource professionals like social workers, paramedics, or mental health workers respond alongside police officers in encounters involving homelessness, drug addiction, mental illness, or nonviolent offenses.”

Smaller majorities of these ethnic groups also supported an alternative

Askia-At-Large

By Askia Muhammad

The Meltdown of Donald J. Trump

POWELL Page 46 papers — even blanks — with his signature on them like they are works of art. He signs peoples’ bibles and he tosses rolls of paper towels to hurricane victims like they are prized collectibles. He was impeached, but a kangaroo-court jury permitted him to remain in office, as though it was his accusers who committed his crimes.

Even before they get inoculated with his disease, his followers line up, shoulder to shoulder, just to get a glimpse

ASKIA Page 46