City Government
City Finally Moves Forward to Study and Remedy Discriminatory Practices

The Oakland City Council this week approved a contract to complete a “Race and Gender Disparity Study for the City of Oakland,” a decision for which Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan has fought for years.
The council, acting at its meeting Tuesday evening, approved a resolution authorizing a $491,000 contract with Mason Tillman Associates to conduct the study.
Even though the City Charter requires the study to be completed every two years, the last one took place in 2007, 10 years ago.
“I am thrilled that this is finally coming to fruition, said Kaplan. “Now the city can begin the important work of examining and remedying discriminatory practices, and working to achieve more equitable processes and outcomes.”
Kaplan successfully won funding in the last budget in 2014 to complete the disparity study, but the administration failed to move ahead on the project.
Like much of the country, Oakland has a troubling history of excluding Black-owned businesses and woman-owned businesses from equal opportunities to participate in city-issued contracts, said Kaplan in a statement.
When disparity was last studied in Oakland in 2007, large gaps and inequalities were discovered. According to Kaplan, people in the city have been so concerned about this issue that voters adopted a legal requirement in the City Charter that mandates Oakland to regularly conduct disparity studies and to take action to make sure that everyone has an equal chance to participate in business, jobs and the economy.
Oakland City Charter §808(b) states: “Every two years, the City shall conduct a race and gender disparity evaluation to determine if the city has been an active or passive participant in actual, identifiable discrimination within its relevant market place.
“If such disparity evaluation evidences such discrimination, the City Council, in order to remedy the discrimination, shall establish a narrowly tailored race and/or gender business participation program, as substantiated by the disparity evaluation, for the bidding and awarding of purchases and contracts.”
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Oakland Post: Week of June 4 – 10, 2025
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of June 4-10, 2025

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Remembering George Floyd
BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing.

By April Ryan
BlackPressUSA Newswire
“The president’s been very clear he has no intentions of pardoning Derek Chauvin, and it’s not a request that we’re looking at,” confirms a senior staffer at the Trump White House. That White House response results from public hope, including from a close Trump ally, Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. The timing of Greene’s hopes coincides with the Justice Department’s recent decision to end oversight of local police accused of abuse. It also falls on the fifth anniversary of the police-involved death of George Floyd on May 25th. The death sparked national and worldwide outrage and became a transitional moment politically and culturally, although the outcry for laws on police accountability failed.
The death forced then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to focus on deadly police force and accountability. His efforts while president to pass the George Floyd Justice in policing act failed. The death of George Floyd also put a spotlight on the Black community, forcing then-candidate Biden to choose a Black woman running mate. Kamala Harris ultimately became vice president of the United States alongside Joe Biden. Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison prosecuted the cases against the officers involved in the death of Floyd. He remembers,” Trump was in office when George Floyd was killed, and I would blame Trump for creating a negative environment for police-community relations. Remember, it was him who said when the looting starts, the shooting starts, it was him who got rid of all the consent decrees that were in place by the Obama administration.”
In 2025, Police-involved civilian deaths are up by “about 100 to about 11 hundred,” according to Ellison. Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African-American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing. During those minutes on the ground, Floyd cried out for his late mother several times. Police subdued Floyd for an alleged counterfeit $20 bill.
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Oakland Post: Week of May 28 – June 30, 2025
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 28 – June 3, 2025

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