COVID-19

Opinion: Martin Luther King Day is Much More Than a Day Off

King advocated for diversity, for an end to discrimination. His “dream” has not come to fruition. Some might argue that we are in a nightmare with the twin pandemics of COVID-19 and systemic racism. A lot of people simply “talk the talk” rather than “walk the walk” around the diversity King dreamed of. Many of us spend the majority of our time with people who look like us rather than those who may reflect the diversity of which we speak.

Published

4 years ago

January 13, 2021

Kiki

I often wonder what those who didn’t experience the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. think of the man and the holiday. I don’t have that problem.

I am a 63-year-old Black lesbian who grew up in Huntsville, Ala. My parents strategized and marched with King. I learned about civil disobedience and protests from them when I was 4 years old. I heard them talk of engaging in sit-ins at segregated lunch counters.

And they explained to me that we would not be buying new clothes from the segregated stores in town on Easter because King, in conjunction with the local churches, had organized a boycott. If we couldn’t shop at these stores by entering the front door, then we wouldn’t patronize them.
Easter clothes and accouterments were a very big deal among a lot of Blacks in the South. It was the time when we put on our finest clothes. We all got entirely new outfits, the whole regalia, from underwear to shoes, purses, hats and gloves.

So it was a very big deal to forgo this. In fact, the organizing strategy was to wear blue jeans that Easter Sunday in 1962.

Now, little Black girls did not wear pants to church anywhere in the 1960s, much less jeans. But it was a visible way to demonstrate our outrage with stores that discriminated against us based on race. King knew that this would be a hard sell in the Black community, but he also understood that it was essential.

I never met King, but my father so vividly described the meetings and organizing sessions around the boycott that in my young mind I had met the great man. Plus, in a lot of Black homes in the 1960s there were three pictures hanging on the walls: Jesus Christ, John F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

My father, just three years younger than King, spoke of him both as a good friend and as a genius. His oratory skills were legendary and I’m not simply speaking of his oft-quoted “I Have a Dream” speech. If there was an opportunity to hear King preach, you took that opportunity. His down-home preaching was so good that it made you want to holler and fan yourself at the same time.

I wonder what King, who would have been 92 this year, would make of the country in a pandemic in 2021? He would notice the national holiday and all of the streets named after him, but I imagine he would not be impressed. King was a man of substance. Stamps, holidays and streets named in his honor were not in his master plan.

So, I will honor the anniversary of King’s birth as I did even in the years before it became a federal holiday. I will shed tears over the loss of a great man and a philosopher. I will rue the lack of knowledge that most have of his life and legacy and of anyone different from ourselves. And I will offer a not-so-silent prayer that the best way to honor King is by listening or reading some of his speeches and by “walking the walk” of diversity.

Actions do speak louder than words.

Kiki

Posts by Kiki | Website

Up Next

Black Women Wailing. Black Women Healing. Black Women Respond to the Violence in our City

Don't Miss

Black Woman Named Executive Producer of ‘CBS This Morning’

Kiki

Click to comment

Alameda County

After Years of Working Remotely, Oakland Requires All City Employees to Return to Office by April 7

City Administrator Jestin Johnson recently told city unions that he is ending Oakland’s telecommuting program. The new policy will require employees to come to work at least four days a week. These new regulations go into effect on Feb. 18 for non-union department heads, assistant and deputy directors, managers, and supervisors. All other employees must be back at work by April 7.

Published

2 months ago

February 19, 2025

Oakland Post

Oakland City Hall. File photo.

By Post Staff

The City Oakland is requiring all employees to return to the office, thereby ending the telecommuting policy established during the pandemic that has left some City Hall departments understaffed.

City Administrator Jestin Johnson recently told city unions that he is ending Oakland’s telecommuting program. The new policy will require employees to come to work at least four days a week.

These new regulations go into effect on Feb. 18 for non-union department heads, assistant and deputy directors, managers, and supervisors. All other employees must be back at work by April 7.

The administration may still grant the right to work remotely on a case-by-case basis.

In his memo to city unions, Johnson said former President Joe Biden had declared an end to the pandemic in September 2022, and that since then, “We have collectively moved into newer, safer health conditions.”

Johnson said “multiple departments” already have all their staff back in the office or workplace.

The City’s COVID-era policy, enacted in September 2021, was designed to reduce the spread of the debilitating and potentially fatal virus.

Many cities and companies across the country are now ending their pandemic-related remote work policies. Locally, mayoral candidate Loren Taylor in a press conference made the policy a central issue in his campaign for mayor.

City Hall reopened for in-person meetings two years ago, and the city’s decision to end remote work occurred before Taylor’s press conference.

At an endorsement meeting last Saturday of the John George Democratic Club, mayoral candidate Barbara Lee said she agreed that city workers should return to the job.

At the same time, she said, the city should allow employees time to readjust their lives, which were disrupted by the pandemic, and should recognize individual needs, taking care to maintain staff morale.

The John George club endorsed Lee for Mayor and Charlene Wang for City Council representative for District 2. The club also voted to take no position on the sales tax measure that will be on the April 15 ballot.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Activism

Freddie Ray Turner, 75

Fred enjoyed a 27-year career (1972-1999) with the Oakland Unified School District. Starting as a classroom teacher, he went on to serve as a vice principal, principal and retired as director of Student Services. But retirement was not in the cards for Fred. He went on to serve as the Fremont Unified School District’s director of Pupil Services for five years, retiring in 2004.

Published

4 months ago

January 1, 2025

Oakland Post

Freddie Ray Turner. Courtesy photo.

Special to The Post

Freddie Ray Turner was born in Mesa, Arizona, on July 15, 1949, the youngest of Carlanthe and Jimmie Turner’s seven children. Fred attended the Chandler public schools and graduated high school in 1966. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Drama and Spanish from Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona.

Relocated to the Bay Area, he continued his education, and earned a master’s degree in Education Administration from California State University-Hayward.

Throughout his life, Fred traveled the world. He didn’t just have a “travel bug,” Fred was a travel bug. He graduated from overnight stays in youth hostels in Paris, Rome, and Madrid to vacationing in much finer accommodations in Kenya, Turkey, China, Japan, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Israel, Amsterdam, and South Africa. If there was an airport, at some time in his life Fred Turner landed in it.

Fred was a devoted member of Brother-to-Brother from 2005 until his passing. He was also a life associate of the East Oakland-Hayward section of the National Council for Negro Women, an organization he strongly supported since 2013. Fred also served on the Board of Directors for the Leadership Institute at Allen Temple Baptist Church.

An avid reader, Fred’s response to the lockdown caused by the 2020 COVID pandemic was to organize “Plot Chasers,” a close group of friends who meet weekly to read and discuss short stories.

Fred passed away on Dec. 15, 2024, following a brief hospitalization. He was predeceased by his parents, his sister, Madelyn, and brothers Robert Lee and Franklin Eugene.

He leaves to mourn his surviving siblings Artie Mae Clark, Dorothy Rome, and Jimmie Richard Turner; first cousin, Catherine Markham; a host of nieces and nephews, great- nieces and nephews, and very close friends.

A Celebration of Life Service will be held at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 8, at Allen Temple Family Life Center, 8501 International Blvd., in Oakland, CA.

In lieu of flowers, the family is asking that friends honor Fred’s memory with a donation in Fred’s name to the National Alzheimer’s & Related Disorders Association, or to the East Bay AIDs Advocacy Foundation.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Bay Area

Authorities Warn: There’s a COVID Surge in California

According to data estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the coronavirus in California’s wastewater has spiked for eight consecutive weeks. Hospitalizations and emergency room visits have also increased since the rise of the new subvariants. Over the last month, Los Angeles County experienced an average of 389 hospital patients per day that tested positive for the coronavirus. The FLiRT subvariants such as KP.3.1.1. Made up over 2% of coronavirus samples nationwide, an increase of more than 7% last month.

Published

8 months ago

August 17, 2024

Oakland Post

Photo provided by California Black Media.

By Bo Tefu, California Black Media

California is experiencing a COVID-19 surge this summer, experts warn, as numbers of infections increased for the third month this year.

State public health authorities attribute the summer COVID surge to more infectious subvariants that have emerged as the coronavirus evolves.

Dr. Elizabeth Hudson, regional chief of infectious disease at Kaiser Permanente Southern California, stated that subvariants of COVID-19 called FLiRT increased in recent months, particularly one named KP.3.1.1 that has become the most common strain in the country.

Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious diseases expert at UC San Francisco, said that the subvariant KP.3.1.1 seems most adept at transmission.

“The subvariant is the one that people think will continue to take over, not only in the United States, but … around the world,” Chin-Hong said.

The majority of the people who tested positive for COVID-19 complained of a sore throat and a heavy cough. Risk factors that can increase the illness include age, underlying health issues, and vaccine dosage.

Health experts stated that the demand for the COVID-19 vaccine has increased in Northern California. However, people are having a hard time getting the vaccine due to the increasing number of cases.