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Commentary: Become Aware, Get Tested During Hepatitis C Awareness Week

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By Armond S. Robinson

At its meeting on Feb.18, the Oakland City Council passed a resolution declaring March 8-15 Hepatitis C Awareness Week, calling on residents to learn about the risk factors for this preventable disease and to participate in Citywide education events.

This week of awareness is a part of a larger “Hep C Free Oakland” campaign initiated by the OASIS Clinic, an Oakland clinic dedicated to reducing the scope and consequences of hepatitis C in our communities.

In the U.S., nearly 5 million people have been exposed to Hepatitis C but the majority are unaware of their infection. Here in Oakland, a disproportionate number are people of color. I am one of those people.

At 62, knowing that Black men are at higher risk for colon cancer, I made an appointment with a primary care physician to get an overdue colonoscopy referral. My doctor also ordered several blood tests, one of which, fortunately, was for hepatitis C.

I had no symptoms of infection; she simply followed recommendations that all baby boomers should be tested.

Hepatitis C is called the silent killer for a good reason: had I not gotten that screening test, I would be walking around today, completely ignorant of my infection. The symptoms of Hep C are usually vague, such as fatigue, fever, joint and muscle aches, but even with minimal symptoms Hep C can lead to severe liver problems such as cirrhosis or even worse, cancer.

After learning my status, I sought treatment, and multiple follow up tests have shown that my virus is gone: I am cured. It is remarkable how few people know that the majority of people who get treated for Hep C can be cured.

In the past, Hep C treatment was difficult, but newer treatments are shorter and the drugs have fewer side effects. Hep C medications are improving rapidly, and cure rates are getting higher. There is hope, and it abounds.

But you probably won’t know you have it unless you are tested. And you should get tested if you could ever have come in intimate contact with someone else’s blood, or if you were born between the years of 1945 and 1965. Nowadays, the test just takes a fingerstick and 20 minutes. That’s not asking much, for an investment that could save your life.

Hep C Awareness Week will take place in Oakland on March 8- 15. There will be literature, education and testing at clinics and medical facilities throughout the city.

The OASIS Clinic, located at 520 27th St., Oakland, will offer free rapid testing from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m., Monday through Friday of Awareness Week; you can find out your status right then and there and get all the information you need.

The week will culminate with a march around Lake Merritt beginning at 11 a.m. on Saturday, March 15, starting from Snow Park at 19th and Harrison. Testing will also be available there. So, be safe and get tested.

Come out, join the walk, and help yourself and others get and stay healthy.

 

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Fighting to Keep Blackness

BlackPressUSA NEWSWIRE — Trump supporters have introduced another bill to take down the bright yellow letters of Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C., in exchange for the name Liberty Plaza. D.C.

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By April Ryan

As this nation observes the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama, the words of President Trump reverberate. “This country will be WOKE no longer”, an emboldened Trump offered during his speech to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night. Since then, Alabama Congresswoman Terri Sewell posted on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter this morning that “Elon Musk and his DOGE bros have ordered GSA to sell off the site of the historic Freedom Riders Museum in Montgomery.” Her post of little words went on to say, “This is outrageous and we will not let it stand! I am demanding an immediate reversal. Our civil rights history is not for sale!” DOGE trying to sell Freedom Rider Museum

Also, in the news today, the Associated Press is reporting they have a file of names and descriptions of more than 26,000 military images flagged for removal because of connections to women, minorities, culture, or DEI. In more attempts to downplay Blackness, a word that is interchanged with woke, Trump supporters have introduced another bill to take down the bright yellow letters of Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C., in exchange for the name Liberty Plaza. D.C. Mayor Morial Bowser is allowing the name change to keep millions of federal dollars flowing there. Black Lives Matter Plaza was named in 2020 after a tense exchange between President Trump and George Floyd protesters in front of the White House. There are more reports about cuts to equity initiatives that impact HBCU students. Programs that recruited top HBCU students into the military and the pipeline for Department of Defense contracts have been canceled.

Meanwhile, Democrats are pushing back against this second-term Trump administration’s anti-DEI and Anti-woke message. In the wake of the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma, several Congressional Black Caucus leaders are reintroducing the Voting Rights Act. South Carolina Democratic Congressman James Clyburn and Alabama Congresswoman Terry Sewell are sponsoring H.R. 14, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Six decades ago, Lewis was hit with a billy club by police as he marched for the right to vote for African Americans. The right for Black people to vote became law with the 1965 Voting Rights Act that has since been gutted, leaving the nation to vote without the full protections of the Voting Rights Act. Reflecting on the late Congressman Lewis, March 1, 2020, a few months before his death, Lewis said, “We need more than ever in these times many more someones to make good trouble- to make their own dent in the wall of injustice.”

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Oakland Post: Week of March 5 – 11, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of March 5 – 11, 2025

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Rep. Al Green is Censured by The U.S. House After Protesting Trump on Medicaid

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — His censure featured no hearing at the House Ethics Committee and his punishment was put on the floor for a vote by the Republican controlled House less than 72 hours after the infraction in question.

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By Lauren Burke

In one of the quickest punishments of a member of the U.S. House of Representatives in the modern era, Congressman Al Green (D-TX) was censured by a 224-198 vote today in the House. His censure featured no hearing at the House Ethics Committee and his punishment was put on the floor for a vote by the Republican controlled House less than 72 hours after the infraction in question. Of the last three censures of members of the U.S. House, two have been members of the Congressional Black Caucus under GOP control. In 2023, Rep. Jamal Bowman was censured.

On the night of March 4, as President Trump delivered a Joint Address to Congress, Rep. Green interrupted him twice. Rep. Green shouted, “You don’t have a mandate to cut Medicare, and you need to raise the cap on social security,” to President Trump. In another rare event, Rep. Green was escorted off the House floor by security shortly after yelling at the President by order of GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson. Over the last four years, members of Congress have yelled at President Biden during the State of the Union. Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor-Greene was joined by Republican Rep. Lauren Bobert (R-CO) in 2022 in yelling at President Biden. In 2023, Rep. Greene, Rep. Bob Good (R-VA), and Rep. Lisa McClain (R-MI) yelled at Biden, interrupting his speech. In 2024, wearing a red MAGA hat, a violation of the rules of the U.S. House, Greene interrupted Biden again. She was never censured for her behavior. Rep. Green voted “present” on his censure and was joined by freshman Democrat Congressman Shomari Figures of Alabama who also voted “present”.

All other members of the Congressional Black Caucus voted against censuring Green. Republicans hold a four-seat advantage in the U.S. House after the death of Texas Democrat and former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner yesterday. Ten Democrats voted along with Republicans to censure Rep. Green, including Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, who is in the leadership as the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. “I respect them but, I would do it again,” and “it is a matter of conscience,” Rep. Green told Black Press USA’s April Ryan in an exclusive interview on March 5. After the vote, a group of Democrats sang “We Shall Overcome” in the well at the front of the House chamber. Several Republican members attempted to shout down the singing. House Speaker Mike Johnson gaveled the House out of session and into a recess. During the brief recess members moved back to their seats and out of the well of the House. Shortly after the vote to censor Rep. Green, Republican Congressman Andy Ogles of Tennessee quickly filed legislation to punish members who participated in the singing of “We Shall Overcome.” Earlier this year, Rep. Ogles filed legislation to allow President Donald Trump to serve a third term, which is currently unconstitutional. As the debate started, the stock market dove down over one-point hours from close. The jobs report will be made public tomorrow.

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