Activism
Black Tulip Calls for Action and a Cultural Shift in Oakland for Black Women’s Safety
Anyka Howard, founder of the Betti Ono Foundation and visionary of Black Tulip, expressed the core value of the movement and urgent need for change. “We’re not going to tolerate Oakland being a hotbed for dysfunction and violence, and perpetuating harms against Black women and girls,” Howard said. “We deserve better, we are worthy, our lives matter, and it’s time for us to boldly, and collectively proclaim that and expect the appropriate response.”
By Kristal Raheem
Special to The Post
Last week, Oakland City Council voted to adopt a resolution supporting the federal Protect Black Women and Girls Act, (H.R. 7354). The federal law would establish an interagency task force to examine the experiences of Black women in U.S. society, from education to health care to jobs to housing.
A 2020 study by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation reported that 40% of humans being trafficked in the U.S. are Black women. In 2022, the FBI reported 97,000 Black women were missing. That same year in Oakland, 400 Black women were reported missing.
Anyka Howard, founder of the Betti Ono Foundation and visionary of Black Tulip, expressed the core value of the movement and urgent need for change. “We’re not going to tolerate Oakland being a hotbed for dysfunction and violence, and perpetuating harms against Black women and girls,” Howard said. “We deserve better, we are worthy, our lives matter, and it’s time for us to boldly, and collectively proclaim that and expect the appropriate response.”
The Council vote on Oct. 15 was just the latest reflection of a blossoming movement in Oakland demanding greater protection for Black women and girls.
From Oct. 3-5, the Betti Ono Foundation, in partnership with the Black Arts Movement Business District and Community Development Corporation (BAMB CDC), hosted their inaugural Black Tulip Cultural Week of Action.
The Black Tulip event series included a write-in at the BAMB CDC, an Oakland’s First Friday partnership, and a Day of Action at Lake Merritt.
Howard said everyone must support Black Tulip’s mission, regardless of race and other social identities. She specifically called for men to show up more as allies.
West Oakland native and founder of Black Terminus AR, Damien McDuffie, said the Town’s “pimp culture” has warped how Black women are treated. “Oakland has a complex history around sexual assault and pimp culture, so I think we have a warped sense of what safety might look like, especially for women and girls,” Damien saud. “I think a real impact on how women are treated here in Oakland or in the Bay Area will come from a culture shift.”
The Black Tulip Day of Action took place on Saturday, Oct. 5. Healers, poets, and musicians joined forces to amplify joy, remembrance, and hope.
Oakland educator and healer Venus Morris co-hosted the event alongside honorary guest speaker and singer Dawn Richard.
Richard is the artist relations director with the Hip Hop Caucus, an organization that helps artists use their platform to advocate for important issues. She is also one of 120 people being represented in a lawsuit against Sean “Diddy” Combs for alleged sexual assault and abuse.
Despite the media frenzy regarding the legal case, Richard showed up in Oakland to stand in solidarity for the mission of Black Tulip. “I think our narrative has been stolen from us,” Richard said. “We’ve lost the narrative of what we represent in this culture and in this society. We are more and I think this event exemplifies that.”
Participants gathered to honor the lives of Black women who lost their lives to violence while also celebrating one another as the journey for justice continues.
“We are the mothers, the womb of this earth. There is no America, no globalization, no capitalism, without us,” Howard told Oakland Voices. “People are taught to see us in a particular way that does not honor who we are. Black Tulip is a reclamation of our sacredness. It’s an affirmation, a calling, a demand.”
This story was initially published by Oakland Voices (http://oaklandvoices.us). The author previously worked as a communications and public relations manager for Councilmember Treva Reid.
Activism
On Your November Ballot: Prop 6 Could End “Involuntary Servitude” in California Prisons
Proposition (Prop) 6 would repeal language in the California Constitution that prohibits “involuntary servitude except to punish crime.” Instead, it will replace it with language that prohibits slavery and involuntary servitude absolutely.
By Edward Henderson, California Black Media
Proposition (Prop) 6 would repeal language in the California Constitution that prohibits “involuntary servitude except to punish crime.”
Instead, it will replace it with language that prohibits slavery and involuntary servitude absolutely.
The amendment would also prohibit the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation from disciplining any incarcerated person for refusing a work assignment and authorize the department to award time credits to incarcerated persons who voluntarily participate in work assignments.
To gain a greater understanding of the proposition and the experience of incarcerated individuals impacted by the current language, California Black Media spoke with Dr. Tanisha Cannon, Managing Director of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children (LSPC).
“There are really two main messages for this to be a yes vote,” said Cannon. “The way that the Constitution names what’s going on in these prisons is called involuntary servitude. Involuntary servitude is just another name for slavery. That means that there’s a force and there’s coercion. So, the main message here is that involuntary servitude is slavery.”
So far, eight states, including California, have made provisions in their constitutions permitting involuntary servitude, but not slavery, as a criminal punishment. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 34 states have “earned time” credits that are awarded for participating in or completing education, vocational training, treatment, and work programs. Time credits can later be applied towards early release from secure custody.
The Anti-Recidivism Coalition has also been on record supporting Prop 6, stating that, “More than 94,000 Californians are currently enslaved in state prison. African Americans account for 28% of the prison population despite making up less than 6% of California’s overall population.”
Of those roughly 90,000 inmates, the state’s prison system employs nearly 40,000 who complete a variety of tasks including cleaning, cooking, firefighting, construction and yard work. Most of these workers earn less than 74 cents an hour, excluding the firefighters who can make up to $10 a day. State law permits the corrections department to pay up to half of the current minimum wage in California ($16).
Eighty percent of the employees at LSPC have been directly impacted by the prison-industrial complex. Cannon’s brother works there as well and was in prison at the age of 16 experiencing first-hand how forced labor can negatively impact an individual’s psyche.
“My grandmother passed away and he received that news in the evening. On the outside, you’d get some grieving time. That wasn’t the case for him,” said Cannon.
“He had to wake up at five o’clock the next morning. So, imagine learning that the woman who raised you just passed away. You’re due for work at 5 a.m. in the morning to operate heavy machinery and you cannot say that you don’t want to work because there’s no excused absence in prison.”
So far, there hasn’t been any organized opposition to Prop 6 in California.
A “yes” vote supports amending the state constitution to prohibit slavery and involuntary servitude as punishment for a crime and authorize the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to award credits to incarcerated persons who voluntarily participate in work assignments.
A “no” vote opposes amending the state constitution to prohibit slavery and involuntary servitude as punishment for a crime.
Activism
Minister King X, Civil Rights Group Sue California Prisons Over Right to Protest
Oakland – Minister King X, a prison ‘artivist,’ and a civil rights group will hold a press conference at 11:30 a.m. on Sept. 27 at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) headquarters at 1515 S St. in Sacramento, CA. Sept. 20, 2024, Minister King, a community organizer with California Prison Focus, and the group All of Us Or None (AOUON) filed a lawsuit against the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and top state government officials.
Special to The Post
Oakland – Minister King X, a prison ‘artivist,’ and a civil rights group will hold a press conference at 11:30 a.m. on Sept. 27 at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) headquarters at 1515 S St. in Sacramento, CA.
Sept. 20, 2024, Minister King, a community organizer with California Prison Focus, and the group All of Us Or None (AOUON) filed a lawsuit against the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and top state government officials.
The lawsuit challenges Minister King’s unlawful arrest on Aug. 9, 2021, during “Black August,” for allegedly violating Penal Code section 4571, which criminalizes people with felony convictions standing near prison facilities.
Minister King was arrested and imprisoned by plainclothes CDCR officers after a July 2021 protest calling for the release of political prisoner Ruchell “Cinque” Magee.
The charges were dropped without a hearing, but Minister King and AOUON allege in their complaint that the arrest was retaliation for his activism and a violation of his First Amendment rights.
According to Medium, Minister King X Pyeface of Kage Universal is a rapper, producer, and ‘artivist’ from Oakland who spent six years in federal prison and 18 years in California State Prison, where he was the youngest new African organizer during the 2011 to 2013 California Prisoners Hunger Strike.
CDCR’s report for Minister King’s arrest describes King, and many other activists, public figures, and organizations, as “Black Identity Extremists” and “Black Supremacist Extremists.”
These racist terms were used to label organizations such as Black Lives Matter as terrorist organizations and their use was abandoned by the FBI in 2019.
The lawsuit seeks to prevent CDCR from using Penal Code 4571 to target formerly incarcerated individuals for exercising their rights.
The press conference on Friday will discuss the constitutional issues associated with PC 4571, which prohibits an individual who has previously been convicted of a felony and incarcerated in a California state prison from being present on the grounds of carceral facilities or anywhere adjacent to those grounds without the consent of the warden or sheriff.
Additionally, 4571 prohibits these individuals from being anywhere other individuals in state custody may be, and anywhere adjacent to those in custody individuals without consent.
King and AOUON have alleged in their complaint that the statute violates the First Amendment rights of formerly incarcerated individuals and is overly broad and vague.
“In the depths of Pelican Bay State Prison, and other correctional facilities across the United States, a forgotten population of elderly incarcerated individuals awaits redemption. They are not the ‘worst of the worst,’ violent predators or Black Identity Extremists,” says Minister King X. “Rather, they are a unique class of individuals who possess the wisdom, experience, and desire to promote peace and reconciliation. I am advocating for and on behalf of these elders and the rights of all other prisoners.”
Activism
Oakland’s Asian Community Rallies Against Recall of Mayor Sheng Thao
Thao was speaking at a rally Oct. 15 in Oakland Chinatown, backed by about 100 supporters. “Oakland has seen unprecedented challenges during and since the pandemic, Thao said. “But I stand with you today to tell you that “Oakland has seen 14,000 less crimes this year than last year. This year, we’re headed on the right track,” with fewer homicides than in 2019. “We are saving lives in Oakland. What we are doing work,” she said.
“We’re saving lives in Oakland. What we are doing works,” said Mayor Thao
By Ken Epstein
Self-assured and defiant, Mayor Sheng Thao strongly defended her achievements during her first two years as mayor and went on the offensive against billionaires who are funding the recall campaign against her.
Thao was speaking at a rally Oct. 15 in Oakland Chinatown, backed by about 100 supporters.
“Oakland has seen unprecedented challenges during and since the pandemic, Thao said. “But I stand with you today to tell you that “Oakland has seen 14,000 less crimes this year than last year. This year, we’re headed on the right track,” with fewer homicides than in 2019. “We are saving lives in Oakland. What we are doing work,” she said.
Local community and business leaders supporting Thao spoke at the rally, too, which was held in the courtyard of the Pacific Renaissance Plaza in Chinatown. They pushed back on corporate media portrayals of Chinatown residents living in fear of rampant crime and united in opposition to Thao.
“The billionaires, the millionaires, are going to want to tell you that it’s not working and that somehow you shouldn’t believe the data,” Thao continued. “(However) the data shows that we are saving lives. That is a huge win. It’s not good enough. But it’s a place where we’re proud to start from.”
“You know who is behind this recall. It is majority funded by one executive (of a) hedge fund who doesn’t even live in Oakland. He does not care if this brings Oakland into chaos, because that’s exactly what his recall will do. Imagine a city with no leadership (for many months),” added Thao.
Another speaker, Stewart Chen, owner of a small business in Chinatown and a prominent political leader, has taken a strong stand against the recall.
“Mayor Thao (was) in office for less than two months before the recall started. I think it’s unfair. She hasn’t had time to prove her policies and her leadership,” Chen said.
“(Only) two months. That is not democratic. She campaigned hard and was duly elected, -justly, legally, democratically,” he said.
“The Chinatown community, we’re all here, (because) we want to see Mayor Thao (here) for the next two years” to complete her term, Chen said.
Other speakers included Kenneth Tang, organizing director of Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN) Action – who said he and other APEN Action members came to the rally because, “We support Mayor Thao.”
Elaine Peng, president of Asian Americans for Progressive Alameda, (AAPA) brought out people to the rally. Her organization is also actively working to elect U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris.
Mariano Contreras of the Latino Task Force and a leader of the “Respect Our Vote – No Recalls!” coalition, said, “There was a time when African Americans could not vote. There was a time when Asians could not vote. There was a time when Latinos could not vote. That was called voter suppression. This is another form of voter suppression. We already cast our ballot for Mayor Sheng Thao. Please, vote ‘no’ on the recall.”
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