Activism

Open Letter: Black Oakland Demands in Light of COVID-19 and Rates of Black Death

Published

5 years ago

April 23, 2020

Cat Brooks – Anti Police-Terror Project/Justice Teams Network Carroll Fife – AACE Action Tur-Ha Ak – Community READY Corps/Anti Police-Terror Project Desley Brooks – Community Citizen Harold Mayberry – Senior Pastor, First AME Church Patrisse Cullors – Co-founder Black Lives Matter BK Woodson – Faith in Action Jackie Byers – Black Organizing Project Saabir Lockett Zach Norris – Ella Baker Center/Oakland Not For Sale Mama Ayanna Davis – MXGM-Bay Area/Congo Angola Capoeira Institute/Healthy Black Families Keith Brown – Teacher/President OEA Derrick Muhammad – ILWU Esther Goolsby Ayodele Nzinga – BAMBD CDC/LBP, INC Dr. Noha Aboelata – ROOTS Clinic Candice Elder – East Oakland Collective Allyssa Victory – Afrikan Black Coalition Kampala Taiz-Rancifer, OEA – Black Women’s Caucus James Burch – Anti Police-Terror Project/St. James Infirmary Jakada Imani John Jones III Pastor Anthony Jenkins Jahmese Myers – Schools and Communities First Kev Choice – Musician/Educator/Activist/Oakland Arts Commissioner/Recording Academy-SF Chapter Secretary Lateefah Simon Melina Abdulla – Black Lives Matter Los Angeles Gerald Lenoir, Other & Belonging Institute Allies George Galvis – Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice Annie Banks – Anti Police-Terror Project/Justice Teams Network Daniela Kantorova – Healers for Abolition Dan Siegel – Attorney, Siegel & Yee Tony Douangviseth – Youth Together

Black People are being infected and dying at disproportionate rates from COVID-19.

This past Saturday, Community Ready Corps (CRC) and The Anti Police-Terror Project (APTP) virtually convened a range of Black leaders in Oakland to develop a set of demands around how we expect Oakland to respond to this crisis.

Despite the mainstream media narrative that Black people are “unhealthy” or live “risky lifestyles,” the reality is that for 400 years Black people in this country have been pushed down to the bottom of every indicator that would lead to a healthy and thriving quality of life.

This is true in Oakland. Black people make up the majority of the unhoused and displaced, live in the neighborhoods with the highest concentration of air pollution and have the least access to healthcare and healthy food. As a result, Black bodies are more susceptible to the ravages of COVID-19.

Oakland should have moved preemptively to stop the spread of this virus in Black neighborhoods and ensured Black residents had accurate information, cloth masks, hand sanitizers; but this work was instead left up to grassroots organizations like Community Ready Corps.

In San Francisco, new data revealed that Blacks and Latinos make up the majority of the 1,126 cases in the city. We can be sure that this will hold true in Oakland as well. The City of Oakland needs to release similar data immediately and work with trusted Black community leaders and organizations to respond.

The coalition’s demands are both short and long-term in a wide range of areas from housing to education to testing and healthcare. Some of these include: Free, full, accessible testing and retesting sites, both walk-up and drive-through, in East and West Oakland and at encampments, No criminalization of youth-related to COVID 19 precautions such as wearing a mask, etc., Immediate paid sick days for all essential service workers, Rent abatement for the duration of the administrative closure followed by percentage rent through 2020 for tenants coupled with mortgage forgiveness for landlords.

Access the full document at www.antipoliceterrorproject.org

Cat Brooks – Anti Police-Terror Project/Justice Teams Network Carroll Fife – AACE Action Tur-Ha Ak – Community READY Corps/Anti Police-Terror Project Desley Brooks – Community Citizen Harold Mayberry – Senior Pastor, First AME Church Patrisse Cullors – Co-founder Black Lives Matter BK Woodson – Faith in Action Jackie Byers – Black Organizing Project Saabir Lockett Zach Norris – Ella Baker Center/Oakland Not For Sale Mama Ayanna Davis – MXGM-Bay Area/Congo Angola Capoeira Institute/Healthy Black Families Keith Brown – Teacher/President OEA Derrick Muhammad – ILWU Esther Goolsby Ayodele Nzinga – BAMBD CDC/LBP, INC Dr. Noha Aboelata – ROOTS Clinic Candice Elder – East Oakland Collective Allyssa Victory – Afrikan Black Coalition Kampala Taiz-Rancifer, OEA – Black Women’s Caucus James Burch – Anti Police-Terror Project/St. James Infirmary Jakada Imani John Jones III Pastor Anthony Jenkins Jahmese Myers – Schools and Communities First Kev Choice – Musician/Educator/Activist/Oakland Arts Commissioner/Recording Academy-SF Chapter Secretary Lateefah Simon Melina Abdulla – Black Lives Matter Los Angeles Gerald Lenoir, Other & Belonging Institute Allies George Galvis – Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice Annie Banks – Anti Police-Terror Project/Justice Teams Network Daniela Kantorova – Healers for Abolition Dan Siegel – Attorney, Siegel & Yee Tony Douangviseth – Youth Together

Posts by Cat Brooks – Anti Police-Terror Project/Justice Teams Network Carroll Fife – AACE Action Tur-Ha Ak – Community READY Corps/Anti Police-Terror Project Desley Brooks – Community Citizen Harold Mayberry – Senior Pastor, First AME Church Patrisse Cullors – Co-founder Black Lives Matter BK Woodson – Faith in Action Jackie Byers – Black Organizing Project Saabir Lockett Zach Norris – Ella Baker Center/Oakland Not For Sale Mama Ayanna Davis – MXGM-Bay Area/Congo Angola Capoeira Institute/Healthy Black Families Keith Brown – Teacher/President OEA Derrick Muhammad – ILWU Esther Goolsby Ayodele Nzinga – BAMBD CDC/LBP, INC Dr. Noha Aboelata – ROOTS Clinic Candice Elder – East Oakland Collective Allyssa Victory – Afrikan Black Coalition Kampala Taiz-Rancifer, OEA – Black Women’s Caucus James Burch – Anti Police-Terror Project/St. James Infirmary Jakada Imani John Jones III Pastor Anthony Jenkins Jahmese Myers – Schools and Communities First Kev Choice – Musician/Educator/Activist/Oakland Arts Commissioner/Recording Academy-SF Chapter Secretary Lateefah Simon Melina Abdulla – Black Lives Matter Los Angeles Gerald Lenoir, Other & Belonging Institute Allies George Galvis – Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice Annie Banks – Anti Police-Terror Project/Justice Teams Network Daniela Kantorova – Healers for Abolition Dan Siegel – Attorney, Siegel & Yee Tony Douangviseth – Youth Together

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Activism

Oakland Post: Week of June 4 – 10, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of June 4-10, 2025

Published

6 days ago

June 7, 2025

Oakland Post

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Activism

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.

Published

2 weeks ago

June 2, 2025

Oakland Post

Mural showing the portrait of George Floyd in Mauerpark in Berlin. To the left of the portrait the lettering "I can't Breathe" was added, on the right side the three hashtags #GeorgeFloyd, #Icantbreathe and #Sayhisname. The mural was completed by Eme Street Art (facebook name) / Eme Free Thinker (signature) on 29 May 2020. (Wikimedia Commons)

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.