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COMMENTARY: “COVID-19 and White Supremacy, Creating Our New Normal”

We must rescue and refine the best of Black ways. Look at our historical grandeur. We once imagined the great Step Pyramid before there was a pyramid. How did we do that? Black people lived through over four hundred years of rabid, hostile, savage, dehumanization yet never became rabid, hostile, savage dehumanizing people. Our way, our worldview, our narrative, our normativity is what allowed us to do this. This is what we need to revisit.

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Dr. Wade Nobles
Dr. Wade Nobles

Black Mental Health pt. 2

By Tanya Dennis

With the global COVID-19 pandemic, we knew the world would never be the same. For some, COVID-19 has provided an opportunity to correct a society filled with bias, inequality, and meanness.

For Dr. Wade Nobles, long-time scholar/activist, and co-founder of the Association of Black Psychologists, “This is our time of reckoning. It is a time to redo what we have always done, sometimes under the radar, always in opposition to white supremacy. This is the time for Black people to interlock, reconnect and heal our community without European influence.”

Dr. Nobles, the Bay Area Chapter of the Association of Black Psychologists, and Oakland Frontline Healers are bringing together the best minds and calling on every sector to join them in the development of African American Wellness Hubs and an African American Healing Center in Oakland.

“Restoring wellness is to make the whole well. It is to connect everything and everyone in life affirming ways throughout the entire African world. Our way of being well and whole were well established in our past. In the past we gathered and found solutions collectively. Remember rent parties, Sunday church special offerings to send a child off to college or visiting the sick and shut in? These are our examples. In our way, personhood, familyhood, neighborhood, peoplehood, all the “hoods” are of equal importance. We can’t have a sick community and think our people will be well.”

Nobles and colleagues, after surveying and talking with Black people in Black communities across the nation, designed a detailed written plan for an African American Wellness Hub Complex. They envision a hub that is linked spiritually and psychologically, as a place where wellness and wholeness is real and ethnically authentic. Nobles said, “In many places our children are failing in school, many of our children are feeling they have no value, are being demeaned and assaulted. We need to take charge of these places. If teachers don’t love our children, they cannot ignite in them a desire to know and a passion for learning. If law enforcement doesn’t have high regard and deep respect for Black people, they will never understand that to ‘serve and protect’ means to be life affirming in what they do.”

“A big part of our new normal is to have in our thought, beliefs, and behavior the best of our wisdom, traditions and restorative practice available. This means to have in place living learning laboratories that are unapologetically devoted to our wellness, e.g., a wellness hub complex with healing centers. To have an exceptional and extraordinary place to bring people together and take them from hostile angry dis-at-ease producing places to places where we can work in harmony, create in dignity, and live to inspire life and ways of being that is affirming.”

Alameda County has stepped forward and is committed to establishing a Black Mental Health facility in partnership with the Association of Black Psychologists. The Association is grateful to Alameda County but notes four or five locations are necessary considering the amount of damage and illness that needs to be undone in the Black community.

Nobles says, “We must create a space, place and time that is guided by an African American wellness narrative that is awe-inspiring.” As an example of how important space is, he notes, “We tried to escape the blight and poverty of the inner city and move out to the suburbs, but all we did was go from inner city hostility to outer city hostility in the white enclave. At least in the inner city, our children didn’t lose their point of reference of belonging in the neighborhood or church. Healing spaces and places must be grounded in life affirming worldview and culture.”

“We must rescue and refine the best of Black ways. Look at our historical grandeur. We once imagined the great Step Pyramid before there was a pyramid. How did we do that? Black people lived through over four hundred years of rabid, hostile, savage, dehumanization yet never became rabid, hostile, savage dehumanizing people. Our way, our worldview, our narrative, our normativity is what allowed us to do this. This is what we need to revisit. We need a wellness place in our Black community where people can ‘imagine the better.’ A place where we can dismantle the ill and wrongfulness and recreate a vibrant affirming life spirit.”

Dr. Nobles says, “our new normal is the old African normal, where Black people inspired greatness just by living well and whole. Black people are a people of caring, sharing and daring. Our way was to care for our people, to share what we have, and to dare to be free. Our history records us having sacred places in nature where we would go to recreate our spirit of wellness. We need those places today and that’s why we need an African American Wellness Hub and healing centers.”

Activism

Comparing Histories: Black and Japanese American Advocates Talk Reparations and Justice

Los Angeles-based clinical psychologist Dr. Cheryl Grills and Bay Area-based attorney Don Tamaki, who were part of the nine-member reparations panel, spoke at the “Justice Through Action: Black Reparations-Reparative Justice” event hosted by local chapters of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) in Sacramento on Feb. 8.

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Former reparations task force member and Loyola Marymount Professor of Psychology, Dr. Cheryl Grills, participated remotely in the “Justice Through Action: Black Reparations-Reparative Justice” event at the California State Museum in Sacramento. Attorney Don Tamaki, seated left, appeared at the event presented by Japanese American Citizens League. Donna Komure-Toyama, seated right, was the moderator. Feb. 8, 2025. CBM photo by Antonio Ray Harvey.
Former reparations task force member and Loyola Marymount Professor of Psychology, Dr. Cheryl Grills, participated remotely in the “Justice Through Action: Black Reparations-Reparative Justice” event at the California State Museum in Sacramento. Attorney Don Tamaki, seated left, appeared at the event presented by Japanese American Citizens League. Donna Komure-Toyama, seated right, was the moderator. Feb. 8, 2025. CBM photo by Antonio Ray Harvey.

By Antonio‌ ‌Ray‌ ‌Harvey‌, California‌ ‌Black‌ ‌Media‌

Two former members of the California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans shared some of their experiences developing a 1,075-page report that detailed injustices suffered by African Americans during and after chattel slavery.

Los Angeles-based clinical psychologist Dr. Cheryl Grills and Bay Area-based attorney Don Tamaki, who were part of the nine-member reparations panel, spoke at the “Justice Through Action: Black Reparations-Reparative Justice” event hosted by local chapters of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) in Sacramento on Feb. 8.

The event was held at the California Museum.

“The first impact that the overall report had on me is that it gave me a panoramic view and it was a panoramic view of the elephant in the room,” Grills, who attended the event virtually, told the audience.

Grills said the report the task force compiled presented an undiluted version of the Black experience in America/

“You could see the totality of the elephant,” she said. “The report gives you the fullness and density of the elephant, which was, at the same time, validating, overwhelming, and painful.”

The JACL is the nation’s oldest and largest Asian American-Pacific Islander Civil Rights Organization.

The JACL presentation was hosted to observe the 83rd anniversary of Executive Order 9066, which led to the incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II.

That panel was part of the Northern California Time of Remembrance (NCTOR) committee’s Annual Day of Remembrance program organized in partnership with the California Museum.

Tamaki, who is Japanese American and the only non-Black member of the task force, said the Black and Japanese experiences in America have some parallels but there are significant differences as well.

“When you look at reparations, and this was the eye opener to me, it’s actually a unifying concept,” Tamaki said. “There’s no equivalence between four years in a concentration camp that our community experienced and 400 years of oppression.”

Tamaki explained, “We do have some things in common. Japanese know something about mass incarceration and profiling and the consequences. In that respect, there is a reason for all of us, whatever our background, to start looking at (reparations). We have to cure the body and not just put a band-aid on it.”

Grills is a clinical psychologist whose work focuses on community psychology. A Professor of Psychology at Loyola Marymount University, she us also a past president of the Association of Black Psychologists.

Tamaki is a senior counsel at Minami Tamaki LLP.  He has spent decades working with AAPI legal services programs. In the 1980s, he participated in the Japanese American reparations movement and served on the pro bono legal team that reopened the landmark 1944 Supreme Court case of Fred Korematsu.

The case resulted in overturning Korematsu’s criminal conviction for violating the incarceration order that led to the imprisonment of 125,000 Japanese Americans after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Earnest Uwazie, a Sacramento State University criminal justice professor and director of the Center for African Peace and Conflict Resolution, was one of more than 100 persons who listened to the two-hour discussion.

“It’s always great to hear from the people involved in the study of reparations and it is good to get a comparative with the Japanese experience,” said Uwazie. “This was extremely informative.”

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Activism

OPINION: Politics, Football and Identity in Trump’s America

If you haven’t noticed, all Americans are engaged in an even bigger game that means so much more than the Super Bowl. Our democracy is falling apart.

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iStock.

By Emil Guillermo

Two Filipino American stories made headlines recently.

First, Nikko Remigio, the Filipino and African American kick returner for the Kansas City Chiefs, did not win Super Bowl LIX.

The other, Alameda’s Rob Bonta said no to running for governor.  I don’t blame him. It’s not like a mass of people wanted him to run.

But I did.

Whenever there is a Filipino American in a place you don’t expect, I’m rooting for that person.

As California’s Attorney General, Bonta is probably the most active defender among Blue States pushing back against Trump’s Extreme-Right agenda.

I’d like to Bonta run for California’s top job, but he’s better off waiting in line. The Democrats need a spot for Kamala Harris, and Bonta not running obliges the hierarchy.

History can wait. Bonta’s just 52.

Harris has held off speculation of her next move, saying she just moved back to the state. But it seems governor is the path for her.

For now, Bonta needs to continue taking the fight to Trump in the courts.

Football and Identity Politics

My dad, whose birthday would have been Super Bowl weekend, came to the US in 1928 as a colonized Filipino, an “American National,” where he couldn’t be a citizen, vote, own property or even marry the person he wanted.

Not if they were White.

Still, he believed in America.  He never gave up.

Sort of like Nikko Remigio.

My dad would have loved Nikko.

If you haven’t noticed, all Americans are engaged in an even bigger game that means so much more than the Super Bowl. Our democracy is falling apart.

You want to get passionate about Eagles and Chiefs?

Let’s be passionate about our Founding Fathers, too.

Nikko didn’t change the game. He touched it three times and provided more yards than all of KC’s running backs.

That’s all I needed to see.

He’s our Filipino guy.

Detractors may call it “identity politics.”

People don’t seem to understand the fight for visibility. To be recognized. To be seen. It’s all wrapped up in the big idea of Civil Rights.

I was nowhere near as good as Nikko when I played. But when you are blessed to play football, you play your hardest.

For me, that was when I was 12 and 13 playing Pop Warner football in San Francisco. I was MVP for my team as a running back.

But I was ashamed of my dad. He wasn’t like the other dads. And I remember going to the team banquet to retrieve my trophy alone.

I didn’t realize it probably meant more to him than I thought.

I wish I had shared my MVP moment with him like Nikko shared his joy with his dad, Mark, born in Seattle to two Filipino immigrants, and his mom, whose mixture of Black and White made Nikko the picture of diversity.

Filipino American and Black and White at the Super Bowl.

But don’t forget, there is one game bigger.

The Super Bowl for Democracy. We’re battling for it every day Trump pushes a cockamamie idea that shakes the foundation of our Democracy.

About the Author

Emil Guillermo is an award-winning journalist and commentator. Watch his micro-talk show “Emil Amok’s Takeout/What Does an Asian American Think?” on www.YouTube.com/emilamok1  Or join him on http://www.patreon.com/emilamok

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Essay: Let’s Take an Honest Look at Distrust, Disparities and Discrimination in Medical Care

In medicine, we celebrate J. Marion Sims as the father of obstetrics, but until recently, we rarely mentioned that most of his medical breakthroughs were achieved through the suffering of Black women who were not adequately anesthetized as he experimented on some of the most delicate parts of their bodies. Books such as “Medical Apartheid” and “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” document the long history of Black bodies being used for scientific experimentation without any compensation or acknowledgement.  

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Dr. Imani McElroy. Photo courtesy of Dr. Imani McElroy.
Dr. Imani McElroy. Photo courtesy of Dr. Imani McElroy.

By Dr. Imani McElroy,
Special to California Black Media 

As I became part of the small community of Black female surgeons, who represent less than 1% of all physicians, I embraced the responsibility with an understanding that part of my career would be dedicated to being a voice for marginalized and disenfranchised people.

Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, I observed the vast economic divide that contributes to health care disparities. Unstable employment and housing, food deserts, underfunded schools, and escalating living expenses all play a significant role in poor health for Black patients.

They also are a direct reflection of centuries of systemic discrimination and racism that has crippled Black Americans dating back to the era of slavery.

The same issues have followed me personally. I live with asthma, which has quietly impacted my breathing since childhood. I have been fortunate to avoid long-term hospitalization, but I have had numerous visits to urgent care and emergency departments.

I discussed my symptoms with my primary care physicians over the years, but it wasn’t until my third year living in Boston that I found a physician who attended to my symptoms and made the necessary adjustments that finally controlled my asthma. My asthma had progressed steadily for 15 years and despite being in the medical field and being able to describe the decline, my symptoms were ignored.

This is a story that is too common among Black Americans. Even fame could not protect Serena Williams when she had to demand appropriate testing and treatment for blood clots in her lungs following the birth of her first child.

I understood that my role as a health care provider extended well beyond the walls of the operating room and the hospital.

The plight of Black Americans within health care and the discrimination we face is well documented in both medical and lay literature.

In medicine, we celebrate J. Marion Sims as the father of obstetrics, but until recently, we rarely mentioned that most of his medical breakthroughs were achieved through the suffering of Black women who were not adequately anesthetized as he experimented on some of the most delicate parts of their bodies. Books such as “Medical Apartheid” and “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” document the long history of Black bodies being used for scientific experimentation without any compensation or acknowledgment.

If we are going to have an honest discussion about the root cause of medical mistrust within the Black community, the conversation cannot simply begin and end with the United States Public Health Service (USPHS) Untreated Syphilis Study at Tuskegee.

It’s essential to recognize that the generational trauma endured by the Black community contributes significantly to its skepticism towards medical institutions.

Healthcare advocacy is multifaceted. From physician-led initiatives addressing policy and resource allocation, to research that intentionally and thoughtfully addresses disparities in access and outcomes, to development of integrated multidisciplinary treatment teams for personalized care plans, there is quite possibly no more important step than educating the lay person.

Gone are the days of blind trust in a physician simply because of their title.

Furthermore, being able to empower patients to advocate for their health care needs will also allow physicians to understand how medical conditions impact their patients’ quality of life and everyday activities. Shared decision-making rests on a patient’s ability to trust the providers caring for them. The medical community owes it to Black Americans to afford them this trust.

As an advocate, I aim to bridge the gap between medical literature and lay literature. Making sure that our community has updated and accessible information that can impact their understanding of their medical conditions and improve the quality of care they receive.

As a Black woman in America, I face my own challenges, including navigating the health care system, and finding providers who look like me, understand my unique needs, and are willing to engage with me despite my medical background.

As my family members grow older and begin to interact more frequently with medical providers, I find myself in the frustrating position of having to help them advocate for themselves in a system that does not always listen.

My white coat does not shield me from the realities of being Black in America and thus I feel it is my duty to become part of the solution in addressing disparities in healthcare.

While much of the work to fix this problem falls in the hands of physicians and providers, active participation is required from both sides.

Increased representation in clinical trials will improve our understanding of risk factors and treatment responses. Attending health fairs and community outreach events will help increase medical literacy and understanding. Being persistent and truthful about symptom progression or treatment side effects is equally as important to help inform decision making.

Most of our medical knowledge is hidden behind paywalls buried in medical jargon. My goal is to help make what is happening in the medical community more accessible to our community.

About the Author  

A native of the Bay Area, Dr. Imani E. McElroy is a clinical fellow of Vascular Surgery at USC Keck School of Medicine. She completed general surgery training at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA. She has a master of Public Health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and received a Doctor of Medicine from the Charles R. Drew University/UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences from the University of California Irvine.  

This article is supported by the California Black Health Journalism Project, a program created by California Black Media, that addresses the top health challenges African Americans in California face. It relies on the input of community and practitioners; an awareness of historical factors, social contexts and root causes; and a strong focus on solutions as determined by policymakers, advocates and patients. 

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