Antonio Ray‌ ‌Harvey‌, California‌ ‌Black‌ ‌Media‌

More than 250 news professionals representing nearly 150 media outlets attended the annual Ethnic Media Conference, Expo, and Awards held at the Sheraton Grand Hotel in Sacramento on Aug. 27 and 28.

Hosted by Ethnic Media Services (EMS) and California Black Media (CBM), the awards ceremony recognized journalists for their outstanding reporting in different topic areas, including health, politics and culture.

The conference sessions leading up to that event included panel discussions featuring state officials, government agencies, lobbying firms, advocacy organizations and more. It also provided networking opportunities for news media owners and professionals from the Black, Native American, Latino, Asian, Pacific Islander, Eastern European, North African, Caribbean and LGBTQ press.

“Last year, the inaugural convening in the state capital focused on ‘meeting the decision-makers,’” said Regina Wilson, Executive Director of CBM. “This year, the emphasis is on strengthening those connections. Key decision-makers have expressed their appreciation for our return, recognizing that at a time of deep budget cuts, our community ties and communication skills are more essential than ever for building new, more equitable messaging,” Wilson added.

State leaders who attended the event included Attorney General Rob Bonta, State Treasurer Fiona Ma, and Tony Thurmond, State Superintendent of Public Instruction.

In addition to state government officials, business leaders, communications firms, nonprofits, and philanthropic organizations also participated in the conference organized to highlight the crucial role ethnic media play in California’s diverse communities.

“California is home to the largest concentration of multilingual news outlets serving immigrant and ethnic communities in the U.S.,” said Sandy Close, Director of EMS. “This breakthrough public-private partnership to support local journalism brings welcome recognition of the ethnic media sector’s indispensable role in connecting these diverse communities to each other and to the wider public realm.”

Thurmond discussed the ethnic media’s role in reporting on education in the state and why articles from ethnic media outlets have an advantage in reaching targeted audiences in underserved communities.

Thurmond, who is running for the governor of California in 2026, spoke at the opening luncheon where CBM and EMS presented Communications Champion Awards to key stakeholders representing organizations across the state’s communications infrastructure.

“We can’t get the right information out about education without the ethnic media in our state,” Thurmond said. “We need to get people to understand that if a student is not reading at a third-grade level in the third grade we will lose them, and they could end up in the prison pipeline.”

This year’s conference coincided with the announcement of the historic $172 million public-private partnership in California aimed at supporting journalism. That agreement brings together state government and high-tech companies led by Google to support local newsrooms.

The deal, supporters say, serves as a national model for strengthening the traditional role of journalism in providing checks and balances in government and business affairs. At a reception held the first day of the conference, CBM and EMS honored Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) with the “Legislator of the Year” award. The organizations also thanked Wicks for brokering the deal with Google and for her ongoing support for news media.

“We’ve worked long and hard to gain this recognition as a multilingual, multiracial, multimedia sector,” said Wilson. “We extend our deepest thanks to our sponsors, speakers, media partners, and all our attendees for supporting this collective effort.”

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Antonio‌ ‌Ray‌ ‌Harvey‌, ‌California‌ ‌Black‌ ‌Media 

Three reparations bills authored by Sen. Steven Bradford (D-Inglewood) passed out of the Assembly Appropriations Committee on Aug. 15.

Senate Bill (SB) 1403, SB 1050, and SB 1331 are now on their way to the Assembly floor for a full vote. If approved, the bills would advance to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk for his signature or veto.

“I want to thank the committee for seeing the importance of these measures,” Bradford said. “I think it speaks to the fact that reparations is an issue that still needs to be addressed. We still experience institutional racism and discrimination in this country.”

SB 1331 proposes creating an account in the state treasury to fund reparations policies approved by the Legislature and the Governor.

SB 1050 would offer compensation to Black Californians who are descendants of enslaved people who lost homes or had their land taken without fair compensation as a result of racially motivated misuse of eminent domain.

SB 1403 establishes the framework for establishing the California American Freedmen Affairs Agency (CAFAA), a state-level department that would oversee all reparations activities, including validating individuals’ status as a descendant of an enslaved person in the United States.

Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland), Chair of the Assembly Appropriations Committee, said it was critical that the reparations bills moved out of the “suspense file,” a designation for bills estimated to cost over $150,000 to implement.

“We moved forward with all the reparations bills. I think this is obviously a huge issue not just for our state but our country,” Wicks said. “It’s about time we have real-direct public policy conversations about it.”

In its final 1,075-page report submitted to the legislature in June 2023, the California Reparations Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans made 115 recommendations to compensate African Americans for harms experienced as a result of slavery.

One of the recommendations is for the state to issue a formal apology to the descendants of people enslaved in the United States. Assembly Bill (AB) 3089, authored by Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer (D-Los Angeles), would require the state to make that statement.

It passed out of the Senate Appropriations Committee with a 5-0 vote and is the fourth reparations bill advanced by the Legislature. Senate minority leader Brian Jones (R-San Diego) and Sen. Kelly Seyarto (R-Murrieta), abstained from voting.

Chris Lodgson, a member of the Coalition for a Just and Equitable California (CJEC), a Sacramento-based reparations advocacy organization, attended the Assembly Appropriation Committee’s suspense file hearing.

“Our ancestors have been with us every step of the way,” Lodgson said. “But there is still more work to do. We must get the (current) bills off the floor in the next two weeks. Make no mistake about it, we would not have those opportunities for the next fights if we did not win today.”

Bradford hopes the bills and other reparations legislation pushed by the California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC) set the standards for other states.

“This is not a handout. This is what was promised to us 163 years ago and it’s long overdue,” Bradford said. “I hope it sends a signal not only for California but for the rest of the nation that this is a priority. Not only is California watching. The nation is watching.”

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By Antonio Ray Harvey, California Black Media

 On Aug. 15, the Assembly Appropriations Committee voted 11-3 to pass a bill Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas (D-Los Angeles) authored requiring state-funded contractors hired for large-scale infrastructure projects prioritize hiring “disadvantaged workers.”

Senate Bill (SB) 1340 now moves to the Assembly floor for a full vote.

During a rally on Aug. 13 in front of the State Capitol Smallwood-Cuevas said the bill would help ease the state’s “job crisis” – which only impacts Californians from underserved communities of color whose unemployment rates remain in the double digits.

For all Californians, the unemployment rate is relatively low at around 5.2%.

“We’ve been working on this issue, I would say, a good part of a decade, fighting for better opportunities for our communities to benefit from the investments of public dollars in our infrastructure (projects),” said Smallwood-Cuevas.

The passage of SB 1340 by the Assembly Appropriation Committee happened the same week that the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) released a report showing that Black Californians have the lowest employment rate in California’s top 10 occupations. Those professions include managers, truck drivers, registered nurses, customer service reps, teachers, construction workers, CEOs and legislators, among other fields.

Overrepresented at lower income levels, Black and Latino families consist at or below the 10th percentile while comprising 44% of all families in the state, the PPIC reported. For every dollar that White families earn, Asians make 95 cents, Black families earn 58 cents, and Latinos earn 52 cents.

“There should be equity and labor,” Smallwood-Cuevas said. “It’s not enough to pass a bill. It’s about implementation and intentionality.”

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