by Obi Egbuna Jr

Reflections concerning navigating and maneuvering at the UN

Whenever Mother African’s Daughters and Sons touch down at the United Nations in New York City, regardless of where we fall on the ideological spectrum, it becomes abundantly clear that we are officially on enemy territory.

For US-born Africans with a sense of history, they never hesitate to remind our extended kith and kin at home and abroad that the UN is a precursor to the League of Nations, created by arguably the most racist Democrat to take the helm at the White House, Thomas Woodrow Wilson. During his tenure as president of Princeton University, Wilson refused to desegregate, leaving our people on the outside looking in. After all, Wilson considered segregation itself both rational and scientific. His apologists have always blamed this disposition on his Southern upbringing.

Since the League of Nations, in the eyes of Western political experts, could not curtail Axis aggression and prevent World War II, a facelift became the order of the day. Over 61 days in 1945, between April and June, 50 nations met in San Francisco to draft and sign the UN Charter.

During October of that same year, Africans were in Manchester, England, organizing our Fifth Pan-African Congress, which laid a springboard for the anti-colonial movement that led to self-determination and independence for Ghana on March 6, 1957, and 35 African nations between 1957 and 1960.

Exactly 10 years before Ghana’s independence, the Pan-Africanist and human rights champion Dr. WEB DuBois found himself locking horns with US First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who was seething with anger because he boldly presented “An Appeal to the World: A Statement on the Denial of Human Rights to Minorities in the Case of Citizens of the United States of America and an Appeal to the United Nations for Redress.”

Unfortunately, those who reduce Dr. DuBois to his disputes with Booker T. Washington and the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey forget how exposing Wilson in his 1913 open letter, standing up to Mrs. Roosevelt at the UN and refusing to endorse Harry Truman, who breathed life into both the Zionist State of Israel and the CIA, set the tone for African anti-imperialist resistance worldwide.

The mass walkout at the UN last week during Zionist Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu’s General Assembly speech appeared in the same space where Israel refused to recognize Algeria and Tunisia’s independence and right to sovereignty. Every Zionist Israeli head of state has used their platform at the UN to vote for the maintenance of the illegal racist US blockade on Cuba.

Exactly four years later, in 1951, the cultural and artistic colossal Paul Robeson, who proudly considered himself a pupil of Dr. DuBois, along with William Patterson, submitted an appeal entitled “We Charge Genocide: The Crime of Government Against the Negro People” to the UN in New York. Patterson also delivered it to an additional meeting in Paris.

One decade later, the Liberation Committee for Africa and the United African Nationalist Movement interrupted the speech by US Ambassador to the UN Adlai Stevenson, condemning the role of the UN and Western imperialist forces in the horrific and barbaric assassination of Congolese Patrice Lumumba.

The sentiment that led to us taking to the streets in Harlem, Havana, Warsaw, Paris and New Delhi was echoed by Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah when he said, “History records many occasions when rulers of States have been assassinated. The murder of Patrice Lumumba and two of his colleagues, however, is unique in that it is the first time in history that the legal ruler of a country has been done to death with the open connivance of a world organization (the United Nations) whom the ruler put his trust in.”

From there we remember Brother Malcolm returning to Babylon from his second trip to Mother Africa, where he went primarily to generate support from the most revolutionary heads of state at our disposal for the purpose of exploring the possibility of taking US imperialism before the United Nations. What differentiated Malcolm’s efforts from what Dr. DuBois, Paul Robeson and Unsung William Patterson were attempting was that, in 1947 and 1951, we had no independent, let alone revolutionary, nations ready to do battle on that initiative. Brother Malcolm took the golden opportunity to multitask and pen a classic article in the Egyptian Gazette entitled “Zionist Logic,” which is why, when it comes to anti-Zionist resistance amongst Africans, he is a trailblazer. It would come as no surprise that when Brother Malcolm was poisoned by the CIA in Egypt, the Israeli Mossad was also involved.

It appears that, as it pertains to anti-Zionism, the social democrats too often appear to have no interest in the efforts to the left of them on the spectrum. Therefore, the role of the revolutionary Pan-Africanist head of state Ahmed Seku Ture, who was at the forefront of pushing UN Resolution 3379, Zionism and Racism, must be remembered. We must remind our people that Palestinian solidarity for Africans is only the tip of the iceberg, and if we fight them based on their crimes against the African world, their days are numbered.

Our comrade and brother, Venezuela’s President Nicholas Maduro, was captured by US imperialist forces in a manner similar to the way Phyllis Wheatley was snatched from SeneGambia at the tender age of 7, or Zimbabwe’s former President Robert Mugabe was captured by the Southern Rhodesians and imprisoned for 11 years without a trial.

As President Maduro sits defiantly in an imperialist prison cell under bogus charges of drug trafficking, many remember 20 years ago, during his speech at the UN General Assembly, his predecessor Comandante Hugo Chavez called former US President George W. Bush the devil. Ironically, today former President Bush parades around as a born-again humanitarian, boasting that he has tested more women for breast and cervical cancer in Mother Africa than any other institutional framework of its kind. This grotesque attempt at a political makeover was encouraged by the neocolonialist tandem of former Ghanaian Presidents John Kufuor and John Attah Mills, who, in sequence, announced and opened the largest highway in all of Ghana named in honor of former President Bush.

Due to the level of decorum expected in high-level diplomatic spaces, progressive and revolutionary forces face the challenge of keeping their cool because passion and emotion could lead to costly miscalculations and acts of bad judgment.

The battle cry for African heads of state asking for permanent representation on the UN Security Council should result in a campaign named in honor of late President Mugabe. During the final phase of his presidency, we saw US-EU imperialism attempt to block Zimbabwe from chairing the UN Committee for Sustainable Development, addressing the Food and Agriculture Organization meeting and trying to leverage the UN Security Council to impose additional sanctions on Zimbabwe. Only China and Russia’s vetoes prevented this cowardly and hateful overture.

When US imperialism resorts to using the UN Security Council to impose sanctions, that act of aggression represents a final death blow to a nation where they desire a regime change.

Our comrades in Eritrea were forced to endure these measures because of a lie propagated by US imperialism that they were supporting al-Shabaab terrorist cells, allegations which were eventually dropped due to a lack of proof.

Since this year marks the 25th anniversary of the UN Conference on Racism, Xenophobia and Other Related Intolerances, where former President Bush threatened to boycott the conference over our ancestors’ captivity, commonly referred to as slavery, reparations and the Palestinian question, the more-than-usual traffic in and around this year’s General Assembly should come as no surprise.

To all newcomers who are engaging on this level for the very first time, we hope they surround themselves with disciplined and principled organizers who know how to avoid the grandstanding and shenanigans at all costs.

At this stage, you can expect to see anything, like pretend demonstrations, opportunists present foaming at the mouth for photo ops with heads of state, foreign ministers or any other high-level diplomats they feel can enhance their individual or organizational profiles. This includes gross exaggerations about what they sincerely have the ability or genuine willingness to deliver as an act of solidarity and camaraderie. We must prepare to overcome vultures who are against cohesion and seek to exploit the mileage of issues that soak in our sweat and blood.

We are witnessing the Ghanaian government dance to the tune of reparations while openly volunteering to serve as a neocolonialist proxy to the European Union intelligence agencies and militaries, who are looking to bring about regime change targeting the Alliance of Sahel States. Before retirement, General Michael Langley was aiming to do his best impersonation of the war criminal and buffalo soldier General Colin Powell.

Our extended family in Cuba have notified the world that the recent energy blockade has cost them $5.8 billion and nearly $180 billion since it was imposed in 1962.

The Democratic machine stands with Cuba when it’s convenient but is obviously more anti-Trump than it can ever be pro-Cuba. Its disingenuous posture suggests that Trump isn’t trying to finish what Kennedy started in 1961, which was a working tribute to the first seven US presidents who wanted to annex Cuba.

When every ounce of smoke clears, only those on the battlefield who wish to be what the Pan-African giant Amilcar Cabral referred to as anonymous fighters when addressing the UN in 1962 will carry our struggle forward.

Our aim is to convert all weaknesses to strengths and expand on the strengths.

Matching the resolve of Cuba, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Eritrea, the Alliance of Sahel States, Nicaragua and all our comrades and friends who dare to defy the odds our enemies attempt to present as insurmountable is an honor and privilege beyond description.

Obi Egbuna Jr. is the External Relations Officer of the Zimbabwe Cuba Friendship Association.

The post Political theater on the world stage appeared first on San Francisco Bay View.

“Nobody in the world, nobody in history has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people oppressing them.” – Assata Shakur, a Panther who was given political asylum in Cuba after being liberated from prison by her comrades in the Black Liberation Army.

“An unarmed people are slaves, or subject to slavery at any given time.” – Minister of Defense Huey P. Newton, co-founder of the Black Panther Party

“Laws should be made to serve the people’s, the people shouldn’t be made to serve the law”. – Minister of Defense Huey P. Newton, co-founder of the Black Panther Party

“The task is to transform society, and only the people can do that; not heroes, not celebrities, not stars…” – Minister of Defense Huey P. Newton, co-founder of the Black Panther Party

“We are taught at an early age to be against the communist, yet most of us don’t have the faintest idea of what communism is. Only a fool let’s somebody else tell him who his enemy is.” – Assata Shakur, a Panther who was given political asylum in Cuba after being liberated from prison by her comrades in the Black Liberation Army.

“People get used to anything, the less you think about your oppression, the more tolerance for it grows. After a while people just think that oppression is the normal state of things. But to become free, you have to be acutely aware of being a slave.” -Assata Shakur, a Panther who was given political asylum in Cuba after being liberated from prison by her comrades in the Black Liberation Army.

by JR Valrey

Emory Douglas is by far the most revolutionary visual artist of our lifetime, with his artwork organizing, educating and inspiring Black and other oppressed people around the world for the last 60 years. Known in the Black Panther Party as the Minister of Information and the Revolutionary Artist, his revolutionary political cartoons conveyed the messages of the Black Panther Party to youth as well as to people who were illiterate.

Recognized around the planet, his artwork has been adopted and used by revolutionary movements in Algeria, Palestine, Cuba, Chiapas and China, to name a few. Emory Douglas is a living legend, and the SF Bay View newspaper salutes him and his Panther comrades on their 60th anniversary.

JR Valrey: Emory, when Huey and Bobby said that the Black Panther Party is an armed propaganda unit, what does that mean?

Emory Douglas: Well, that means that we were informing, enlightening and educating people about the contradictions and around the 10-point platform improvement in relationship to what the responsibility of revolution should be.

JR Valrey: When Huey said that “the Black Panther newspaper was the lifeblood of the Black Panther Party,” what did that mean to y’all?

Emory Douglas: That meant it was a lifeline between us and the world, and getting our message out there in the context of importance and telling our story from our perspective … and being able to criticize or praise what was going on in the context of the community and the world from our perspective. It was a lifeline because it was, that’s how people found out who we were around the world. Seeing it on the news and all those things, and then having requests to come speak and then our newspaper telling it from our perspective, our story and getting the firsthand insight.

JR Valrey: How much focus went into the Black Panther newspaper? I know it came out weekly, or was it monthly?

Emory Douglas: It was when it first evolved, we got it out when we could. That might have been monthly. And then after that we would try to get it out, say, every two weeks. And then it went as the party evolved and grew. We started getting it out every week, yeah, without any limitation. That was the comrades who may have worked in other areas of Panther work had to come a certain day, Wednesday. If it was Wednesday, they would work on the paper until it was finished, then they’d go back to the other work.

JR Valrey: And what was the process like?

Emory Douglas: Well, you had an editorial staff, editorial kind of, you had the editorial aspect of the paper, those who were the writers deciding what articles went into the paper.

JR Valrey: How did y’all do that?

Emory Douglas: Well, that was done by … we had people who we knew, sometimes who shared information with us, activists or progressives or otherwise, and then at the same time you had us getting in contact with folks, and they, the editors, would have all that information and sort through it, and decide on what was going on. Then shared it with maybe Huey or Bobby, but mostly the others did have a green light. But they were always in communication at some point in the process with Huey and Bobby about what articles were going into the paper, what’s going on, on the front and stuff like that.

JR Valrey: What’s the importance of the paper being directly involved with an organization with a revolutionary agenda versus a newspaper who’s not involved, taking more of a spectator position?

Emory Douglas: Yeah, that’s what we’re saying. The newspaper told our story from our perspective and we were not shackled by advertising and all the other stuff. We could say what we wanted to say, back it up and use language in the context of the culture of now that we communicated in.

JR Valrey: Okay, but I understand that you had a freedom of speech that most Black people didn’t have, but what was the power? Why did you even increase distribution? Why did the BPP increase the papers that they were pushing in the community?

Emory Douglas: It went from monthly, in barely any time, to every two weeks. Oh, it came from the readership and the demand for the paper. That was our lifeline … people would come to us to want to know who to vote for, and those kinds of things.

JR Valrey: What’s the difference between bourgeois media and, say, Black revolutionary media?

Emory Douglas: Well, you had that but a lot of them supported us. You had people in there who supported us. That’s why I went to work with The Sun Reporter after the BPP because Dr. Goodman supported us.

JR Valrey: Was he seen as radical in the ’60s?

Emory Douglas: Progressive, yeah. But you could say there was some who were shackled by advertisers on what they could say. You could say that in that context, they couldn’t speak on issues as much. They began to, and they would do some things, but on a broad scale.

JR Valrey: What is the difference between a conscious artist and a revolutionary artist?

Emory Douglas: Well, that is a revolutionary artist, a conscious artist.

JR Valrey: So you don’t make a distinction?

Emory Douglas: Well, you can make a distinction but it’s a broad context. What is it for? Whom is it serving? And how does it relate? Because it can be on a revolutionary scale that transcends the community or it can be on a scale that really focuses on certain issues within the community.

JR Valrey: What is the Artist Manifesto? Why was that important?

Emory Douglas: Well, that came over a period of time. That came about 2014, somewhere around then, and I thought that maybe putting it together. It’s ideas and thoughts that I had, in the context for the younger artists to have as a guide to act.

JR Valrey: So that wasn’t in the Black Panther Party?

Emory Douglas: No, it wasn’t a Black Panther Party manifesto. I had other articles that had maybe some of those points in it.

JR Valrey: When your title is said, it’s the Minister of Culture and the Revolutionary Artist. Why is that important to say? Why is it a title even as an artist?

Emory Douglas: Well, Huey and Bobby thought it was important in the context of it being done, but it was the Revolutionary Artist initially. And that came about when I came by a place called Black House, which was here in San Francisco where the elders used to stay upstairs, and a lot of cultural stuff was going on downstairs.

JR Valrey: It was in Fillmore, right?

Emory Douglas: Yeah, it was in Fillmore. The Black House was on Broderick around Sutter and Pine. And so what happened is that I came by there because I used to live right on the corner where the bus stops, going up on 8th. And so I came by one Saturday when nothing was happening and Huey and Bobby were downstairs sitting at the table. I seen Bobby working on the first issue of the paper during the Denzil Dowell case, and I told him I could help him improve it because I seen what he was doing. And he said, okay, and I went home and got my stuff and by the time he came back, I was finished. So Bobby said, “We’re going to start the Black Panther paper to tell our story from our perspective. It would be like a double-edged sword to praise you on the one hand and criticize you on the other.” And they say it would be to tell our story from our perspective, that’s the essence of it.

JR Valrey: What was the importance of photos and artwork that wasn’t particularly political cartoons? How would you pick the photos and general art for the newspaper?

Emory Douglas: Well, sometimes you would reflect on what’s going on in the story, so it had meaning, and in that context, not necessarily a revolutionary meaning but a meaning that reflected what the story and what the art was about.

JR Valrey: The Panthers had a lot of powerful pictures of Kathleen, of Huey and stuff at different times, so y’all were dealing with some kind of philosophy with photography. How did you pick this picture over that picture?

Emory Douglas: Well, sometimes it depends on what we may have, what choices that we had to pick from. The editor sometimes may say we want this picture to go with this. If not, we had the green light to look through our files to see what we had and connected with. Initially, before we had our own photography department, we had photographers who took pictures, but we required that if they took pictures, that they had to give us access to use those same pictures in the paper, if we chose to. So we got a lot of files from different well-known photographers of today, who gave us a lot of files, and then we developed our own photography department.

JR Valrey is a veteran journalist and Editor in Chief at the San Francisco Bay View. He can be reached at JR@sfbayview.com and on IG @JRValrey

The post Not just art for art’s sake: an interview with Emory Douglas, the Black Panther Party’s Minister of Culture appeared first on San Francisco Bay View.

Speech by Afeni Shakur

May 11, 1971 — “Panther 21 Trial,” Criminal Courts Building, New York City

I don’t know what I’m supposed to say. I don’t know how I’m supposed to justify the charges that [Assistant District Attorney Joseph A.] Mr. Phillips has brought before the court against me. But I do know that none of these charges has been proven, and I’m not talking about proven beyond a reasonable doubt. I’m saying that none of the charges have been proven, period. That nothing has been proven in this courtroom, that I or any of the defendants did any of these things that Mr. Phillips insists we did do.

So, why are we here? Why are any of us here?

I don’t know. But I would appreciate it if you end this nightmare, because I’m tired of it and I can’t justify it in my mind. There’s no logical reason for us to have gone through the last two years as we have, to be threatened with imprisonment because somebody somewhere is watching and waiting to justify being a spy.

So do what you have to do. But please don’t forget what you saw and heard in this courtroom . . . Let history record you as a jury that would not kneel to the outrageous bidding of the state. Show us that we were not wrong in assuming that you would judge us fairly. And remember that that’s all we’re asking of you. All we ask of you is that you judge us fairly. Please judge us according to the way that you want to be judged.

Source: The Briar Patch; the People of the State of New York v. Lumumba Shakur et al, by Murray Kempton (New York: E. P. Dutton Co, Inc., 1973), pp. 268-269.

The post At 23, Afeni Shakur defended the Panther 21 while pregnant with Tupac — and won appeared first on San Francisco Bay View.

By Donald “C-Note” Hooker and Jessica “Noonie” Noble 

COMPTON, Calif. — For generations, white corporate media apparatuses have treated Black America like an extractive colony—mining the brilliance, style, rhythm, and language of Black genius while locking our creators out of boardrooms, distribution networks, and equity. Few places have borne the brunt of America’s contradictory appetite quite like Compton: relentlessly stereotyped and pathologized by mainstream news as an emblem of urban decay, while simultaneously commodified by multi-billion-dollar conglomerates profiting off the city’s sonic and cultural exports.

On Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026, the streets of Compton are seizing the means of mythmaking and economic power with the 1st Annual Compton Comics Expo at Compton College. Presented by Studio Skye-Tiger in partnership with the Compton 125 Historical Society, this historic, free gathering is far more than an anime and comic book showcase—it is a defiant exercise in cultural self-determination, Afrofuturist world-building, and economic sovereignty.

The Power of Blackness in the Box Office Pantheon

For decades, Hollywood executives and comic publishing gatekeepers hid behind the self-serving myth that Black stories “don’t travel” or lack mass commercial appeal. The cold, hard numbers shattered that lie forever.

When you level the playing field and stack franchise against franchise across their first two releases in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Black Panther sits in near-untouchable territory. Amassing over $2.2 billion globally across Black Panther and Wakanda Forever, the franchise stands as the #1 solo character brand in Marvel history through its first two films. It generated more revenue out of the gate than the first two installments of Marvel’s crown jewel Spider-Man ($2.01B), crushed fan-favorites like Guardians of the Galaxy ($1.64B), and delivered more than double the sophomore launches of Phase One’s founding trinity: Iron Man ($1.21B), Thor ($1.09B), and Captain America ($1.08B).

In the entire brand pantheon, the power of Blackness yielded to only one entity: The Avengers—an all-star crossover ensemble requiring an entire universe of heroes to assemble. Domestically, the Black Panther franchise pulled in over $1.15 billion in North America alone, outpacing even the first two Avengers films. Black imagination isn’t a niche sub-genre; it is a historic economic locomotive. Yet, despite proving that Black worlds print billions, the corporate machine keeps the master rights, licensing profits, and intellectual property locked away in executive suites.

Dismantling the Gatekeepers: Black Intellectual Property as Liberation

The comic book industry and speculative fiction have long mirrored America’s racial hierarchy. Black youth have grown up watching white heroes save worlds that offer our people little justice, while Black characters were either omitted entirely or reduced to sidekicks and afterthoughts filtered through an unapologetic white gaze.

Commercially, the stakes are existential. Pop culture franchises and superhero intellectual property generate hundreds of billions in global box office, merchandising, gaming, and streaming revenue. Historically, our communities generated the creative energy while white corporate executives retained the copyright, the royalties, and the publishing houses.

The Compton Comics Expo flips this exploitative paradigm on its head. By giving prominence to independent outfits like Studio Skye-Tiger, the event centers Black ownership of the narrative and the copyright. It marks a decisive shift from merely begging for “representation” at Hollywood’s table to building our own platforms, owning the underlying intellectual property, and keeping economic capital circulating directly within our communities.

From Eve After Dark to Graphic Novels: The Lineage of West Coast Hip-Hop

The cultural lineage connecting Compton’s musical resistance to graphic literature takes center stage with a living legend: Alonzo “Lonzo” Williams, the undisputed “Godfather of West Coast Hip-Hop”. As founder of the World Class Wreckin’ Cru and the historic Eve After Dark nightclub, Lonzo launched an era that carried the raw reality of South Los Angeles into the global consciousness, breaking open doors for Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Eazy-E, and DJ Yella.

From 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., Lonzo will host a signing for the graphic history Hip Hop Family Tree at the Studio Skye-Tiger Comics booth. His presence cements an unmistakable truth: hip-hop and comic book art share the same DNA of urban resistance, visual graffiti, raw lyricism, and community survival.

Following Lonzo’s signing, the Mainstage convenes the expo’s keynote panel at 2:00 p.m., “From Compton to Comics,” featuring hometown and vanguard creators Ray-Anthony Height, Shayla Height (creator of What The Fuck Mama!), Marcus D. Newsome, Jamal Anansi, screen/comic writer Marc Bernardin, and author/showrunner Rodney Barnes. The panel explores how the reality of growing up Black in Compton shaped their work, and how they weaponized visual art to challenge institutional barriers.

Radical Animation and Uncompromising Visual Power

Corporate Hollywood has routinely diluted radical Black thought, but independent animation provides an uncompromising front of resistance. At 12:00 p.m., Panel Rooms A and B host “From The Boondocks to Martian Blueberry,” featuring Carl Jones (The Boondocks, Black Dynamite) and Martian Blueberry co-founder/award-winning producer Love Jones.

Carl and Love Jones will pull back the curtain on how Black creatives can navigate structural racism in the entertainment industry to build self-sustaining, disruptive animation studios. Attendees will also receive an exclusive sneak peek at Intellectual Power, a new animated project featuring partner and Compton native Rizza Islam.

Further equipping the next wave of Black illustrators, the afternoon offers technical masterclasses:

• Drawing Workshop: Western Comics vs. Manga/Anime (1:00 p.m., Panel Room A): Led by Nex Vierling of Studio Skye-Tiger, deconstructing visual techniques across genres for creators of all ages.
• Portfolio Reviews with Lee Kohse (2:00 p.m.): Inkpot Award-winning artist Lee Kohse (Star Wars, Aliens) providing direct creative development and industry feedback for local up-and-coming artists.

Building for the Next Generation: Free Access and Family Solidarity

In a climate where comic conventions have been priced out of reach for working-class Black families through exorbitant entrance fees, the Compton Comics Expo stands on radical accessibility by opening its doors for free.

The day’s schedule is intentionally crafted to honor our youth:

• Kids Cosplay Parade (12:00 p.m.): Hosted in partnership with Kids Can Cosplay, ensuring children up to age 15 can hit the Mainstage, celebrate their imagination without apology, and receive treat bags.
• Adult Cosplay Showcase (3:00 p.m.): Elevating grassroots Black craft, costume engineering, and design on the Mainstage.
• Community Grounds: Free all-day access to community resources, a food truck rally, an Artist Alley courtyard, and youth craft zones.

Event Details and Support Information

• Date & Time: Saturday, October 24, 2026 | 11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. (VIP doors open at 10:00 a.m.)
• Location: Compton College, 1111 East Artesia Blvd., Compton, CA 90221. Free parking is open while spaces last.
• Admission: FREE to the public. The first 400 attendees to enter Artist Alley when doors open at 11:00 a.m. will receive an expo swag bag.
• VIP Access: $25 (limited to 100 passes via PayPal or Venmo), which includes 10:00 a.m. early bird floor access, guaranteed swag bag, and official expo merchandise discounts. Up to two children aged 8 and under are admitted free with a paying adult.

To support the movement, register as a volunteer, or inquire about press access, reach out to organizers at comptoncomicsexpo@gmail.com or connect with Compton Comics Expo online.

The post Reclaiming the Narrative and the Bag: Inaugural Compton Comics Expo Plants the Flag for Black Cultural Sovereignty appeared first on San Francisco Bay View.

by Barry Hermansons

At the beginning of October, if you are registered to vote, you will begin to receive a mountain of information about the election. In addition to official materials from the State of California and the San Francisco Department of Elections, many pieces of mail sent by various organizations will seek to influence the way you vote. If you want to do something small for the environment and stop receiving so much election material, vote early. Most political campaigns do not want to waste resources trying to influence people who have already voted. The information below will enable you to get a head start on learning about the issues.

California ballot measures

The following list of propositions has been copied from a web page provided by the California Secretary of State: https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/ballot-measures/qualified-ballot-measures.

For those of you reading this article on the www.sfbayview.com website, the links to the PDFs have been retained. I have provided the number of pages in each PDF in case you would like to read a few. Each PDF includes a title and summary and an analysis by the legislative analyst, including estimated fiscal impact. There is an argument in favor and a rebuttal, as well as an argument against and a rebuttal. There are also links to information about the committees that have been formed to support or oppose each measure, as well as the top 10 contributors to those campaigns. The full text of each proposition can be found at the Secretary of State’s website at voterguide.sos.ca.gov.

Proposition 1

Authorizes Bonds for Housing Affordability Programs. Legislative Statute. (PDF) 6 pages

No argument against Prop 1 was submitted.

Proposition 2

Increases State’s Rainy Day Fund. Legislative Constitutional Amendment. (PDF) 6 pages

Proposition 3

Provides Permanent Funding for Schools and Health Care by Extending Existing Tax on High Incomes. Initiative Constitutional Amendment. (PDF) 4 pages

Proposition 4

Repeals Prohibition Against Public Funding of Election Campaigns. Legislative Statute. (PDF) 4 pages

Proposition 5

Changes Recall Election Process for Statewide Officers. Legislative Constitutional Amendment. (PDF) 6 pages

Proposition 37

Creates Loan Program for Middle-Income Buyers of Qualified New Homes. Initiative Statute. (PDF) 4 pages – No argument against Prop 37 was submitted.

Proposition 38

Authorizes Bonds for Immunology Medical Research. Initiative Statute. (PDF) 4 pages

Proposition 39

Prohibits Citizens from Voting Unless They Present Government-Issued Identification. Initiative Constitutional Amendment. (PDF) 6 pages

Proposition 40

Imposes One-Time Tax on Certain Taxpayers. Initiative Constitutional Amendment and Statute. (PDF) 4 pages

Proposition 41

Prohibits New State Taxes That Exclude Revenues from State Spending Limit. Requires Audits for New State Special Taxes. Initiative Constitutional Amendment. (PDF) 4 pages

Proposition 42

Prohibits New State Personal Property Taxes and Certain Retroactive State Taxes. Initiative Constitutional Amendment. (PDF) 4 pages

Proposition 43

Limits Voters’ Ability to Raise Revenues for Local Government Services. Legislative Constitutional Amendment. (PDF) 4 pages

Proposition 44

Requires Community Health Clinics to Spend 90% of Revenue on Program Services. Initiative Statute. (PDF) 4 pages

Proposition 45

Modifies Environmental Review for Certain Projects. Initiative Statute. (PDF) 6 pages

San Francisco ballot measures

Full text for each of the measures below can be found at https://www.sf.gov/qualified-ballotmeasures. Below the title of each City measure is the question that will appear in the voter handbook written by City Attorney David Chiu. Also listed are the number of pages in the text of the ballot measure and the digest. I have provided an additional comment on only one of these measures, Prop I.

Charter amendments

A – Charter Changes Affecting Various City Departments and Commissions

“Shall the City amend the Charter to align it with how some City departments currently operate, change some processes, eliminate or reorganize certain commissions and advisory bodies, and require the Board of Supervisors to amend voter-approved laws to enact some of these changes?”

Text: 145 pages, Digest: 6 pages

B – Establishing a Municipal Finance Corporation and a Public Bank

Text: 29 pages, Digest: 1 page

C – Contributions to the Housing Fund

“Shall the City amend the Charter to change how the City’s annual contributions to the Housing Trust Fund are set, increase funding and expand programs for affordable housing, and extend the Fund to 2058?”

Text: 15 pages, Digest: 3 pages

D – Changes to Ballot Measure Process

“Shall the City amend the Charter to increase the requirements for signature initiatives from 2% to 8% of registered voters in San Francisco (currently from about 10,600 to about 42,500 signatures), increase the requirements for calling special elections, allow signature initiatives to be withdrawn before an election, and remove the ability of a minority of Board of Supervisors members or the Mayor to place measures on the ballot?”

Text: 11 pages, Summary: 1 page

E – City Administrator’s Authority and Changes to City Contracting

“Shall the City amend the Charter to give the City Administrator more authority by centralizing the City’s purchasing rules and processes, changing how the City approves purchasing rules, changing when contracts and leases require Board of Supervisors approval, and extending the City Administrator’s term?”

Text: 32 pages, Summary: 2 pages

F – Changes to Executive Branch Management

“Shall the City amend the Charter to expand the Mayor’s authority to transfer responsibilities between departments, hire deputy mayors, and hire some and fire most department heads; and to allow City officials to remove members of boards and commissions without cause?”

Text: 67 pages, Summary: 2 pages

Ordinances

G – Allowing Private Vehicles on the Great Highway in Sunset Dunes Park

“Shall the City close Sunset Dunes Park from Monday at 4:00 a.m. through Friday at 6:00 p.m., unless a holiday falls on a weekday, in order to reopen the roadway known as the Upper Great Highway to private vehicles during that time?”

Text: 6 pages, Summary: 1 page

H – Parcel Tax to Fund Public Muni Operations

“Shall the City fund Muni service through a new annual parcel tax on real estate at rates ranging from $129 per parcel up to a maximum of $400,000 per parcel, depending on the type of property and its size and adjusted annually for inflation, for estimated revenue of $177 million a year for 15 years?”

Text: 27 pages, Summary: 2 pages

I – Changes to Real Property Transfer Tax (Affordable Housing Guarantee Act)

“Shall the City permanently dedicate half of the transfer tax revenues collected when certain real estate with a value or sales price of more than $10,000,000 changes hands, which will continue to be taxed at rates of 5.5% to 6%, to be spent only on affordable housing, including social housing developments and housing assistance, and exempt certain sales from the dedicated portion of the tax, for an estimated annual revenue decrease of approximately $1 million?”

Note: This is a tax that was approved by voters in 2020 with the intent, but not the mandate, to spend these tax receipts on affordable housing.

Text: 14 pages, Summary: 2 pages

J – Removal of Foreclosure Exemption for Real Property Transfer Tax

“Shall the City permanently apply a transfer tax of between 0.5% and 6% of a property’s fair market value on the transfer of properties such as commercial, industrial and large residential properties that are transferred to a lender because of foreclosure or to avoid foreclosure, for estimated annual revenue of $100 million to $150 million?”

Text: 8 pages, Digest: 1 page

Regional measures

RTM – Regional Transit Measure

Provides financial support to public transit agencies. “The Initiative Measure would impose a retail transactions and use tax ordinance applicable to the District, for a duration of 14 years, and in an amount of 0.5% in the counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo and Santa Clara, and 1% in the City and County of San Francisco.”

Resolution: 26 pages, No summary or digest

Barry Hermanson is a member of the San Francisco Green Party County Council. Before he retired, he owned and operated a small business and was a leader in the small business community in San Francisco.

The post A very full ballot in November appeared first on San Francisco Bay View.

by Zaire Saunders

In March 2024, San Francisco initiated the use of Flock Safety cameras to read license plates with the ability to capture passing vehicles’ make and model. Now, in 2026, SFPD is the sole owner of 500 artificial intelligence-enhanced surveillance cameras across the city.

Flock Safety, the company behind the nation’s increased surveillance, states on its webpage, “The nation’s largest connected LPR network helps law enforcement, businesses, and communities securely share vehicle evidence, uncover more leads, and solve more cases together. Customers stay in control of how their data is shared and accessed.”

Hunters Point alone has 17 Automatic License Plate Readers, or ALPRs, counted and mapped out. The data comes from Deflock.org, a crowdsourced ALPR map.

Still, many within the community of Bay View Hunters Point remain unaware of Flock’s ALPR presence.

“I promise you. If I asked 10 people right now, they wouldn’t even know they’re there,” said a woman selling oysters on the street at Third and Palou. “They didn’t notify us. We already have it rough with paying ticket prices. We don’t get a lot of funding like other communities. They’re coming for our money.”

In regard to money anxieties, she isn’t alone. A cashier working at a local neighborhood business also stressed the economic capabilities of Flock’s ALPRs.

“It’s militaristic. But they will monetize it. They’re gonna squeeze money out of you. They’re not putting these here without trying to make money. The potential for adding a ticket charge to their system will be child’s play for Flock.”

According to an independent study of ALPRs in Piedmont, California, done in 2021, less than 0.3% of ALPR hits translate to useful investigative leads, therefore failing to justify taxpayers’ costs for such systems.

Although a 2024 study conducted by Flock Safety found a 9.1% increase in crime-clearance rates for a police department using one Flock ALPR, Dr. Johnny Nhan of Texas Christian University, who participated in the study on the company’s reliability and impact, has since questioned the validity of the conclusions.

“The more complicated question would be what percentage of crime and crime types is Flock responsible for. There are just so many uncontrolled variables that it’s hard for me to methodologically isolate the percentage, especially related to any reductions in crime,” said Dr. Nhan. “My study and interest was more on the privacy side of things.”

San Francisco police say their usage of the hundreds of Flock cameras comes with oversight, restrictions on how arrests are made and securely protected data.

But in November 2025, a security researcher discovered Flock logins for sale on a Russian forum. In addition, vehicle data is collected whether you’re suspected of committing a crime or not. Millions are tracked in their day-to-day lives as they commute to jobs, head to recreational activities or – in the case of Grocery Outlet’s use of SAFR facial recognition technology – even when customers are shopping.

Anti-Flock protesters have cited the use of AI-supported Flock cameras as a dragnet, named after the technique fishermen use when dragging a net through the bottom of the ocean in hopes of capturing a large quantity indiscriminately. SFPD’s watchful eye through ALPRs lends itself to the definition.

According to the Flock company website, estimates are that anywhere from 5,000 to 7,000 law enforcement agencies throughout the United States have made contracts with them. The data captured by the ALPRs is entered into a nationwide database, allowing any agency with a contract access.

And although California’s 2015 privacy law – SB 34 – prohibits sharing license plate data with federal and out-of-state agencies, in June 2026 SFPD admitted to ALPR data being seen by those same restricted agencies.

Further privacy concerns have landed in courts across the country. Many raise the possibility of ALPRs violating the Fourth Amendment. Thirty courts across the U.S. have sided with the surveillance company in that Flock ALPR cameras do not violate the Fourth Amendment, with many maintaining that “photographing a license plate on a public road is not a Fourth Amendment search: plates are exposed to public view, and there’s no reasonable expectation of privacy in them.”

The role of ICE also has been called to attention. The organization has already used Flock cameras in its tactics against immigrants. While ICE does not have a formal contract with Flock, it has used data from the nationwide pool through requests from local and state law enforcement.

A man interviewed, but wanting to be identified only as “The watermelon man,” said he “was under the impression of cameras anyway.”

“I think it’s a positive and negative,” he continued. “It’s an invasion of privacy, but on the other hand if something goes down then they’ll be able to go back to the cameras.”

One patron visiting the Bay View Branch of the library offered her thoughts on the surveillance, saying, “They’re all around. It’s all eyes on us – we don’t know who’s behind those cameras.”

Unfortunately, the community paying the city’s taxes is not behind the cameras. For residents of Hunters Point, they are victims of a corporate-backed citywide surveillance system.

Thankfully, identifying Flock ALPRs is an easy task. They are often teardrop-shaped, black, placed on streetlights and traffic lights and supported with solar panels. For a larger list of ALPR suits and evidence used, readers can check out the website Black Dog Forensics.

Zaire Saunders is a writer in San Francisco, California. He can be reached at Zsaunders46@gmail.com

The post Hunters Point’s panopticon appeared first on San Francisco Bay View.

by Ty-Licia Hooker

In June, I submitted an interdistrict transfer application for my daughter to attend Transitional Kindergarten in Berkeley Unified School District.

After my transfer was approved by my home district, I called Berkeley Unified's enrollment office to ask what came next. I was told I was on a waiting list and should expect to hear something by the second week of September.

School started in August.

September came.

And I heard nothing.

When I called again on September 11, I wasn't met with support. I was met with dismissal.

I was told I should have checked the website for next steps.

I explained that I had called months earlier and followed the instructions I had been given. After being placed on hold, I suddenly received an email containing enrollment paperwork that likely should have been sent to me back in June. The form took me less than 15 minutes to complete.

Had I received it earlier, it would have been completed earlier.

The following day, I called to confirm my paperwork had been received.

That conversation left me confused.

I was told I didn't need to call every day to check on my daughter's status, despite the fact that I had not been calling every day, and that I should check my emails. When I asked what email address would be contacting me and when I could expect an update, I was told my daughter could remain on a waitlist until October 23 or I could simply try again next year.

Trying to understand what had happened, I asked if there was something I had missed or did wrong. The response? I was told I should learn how to read so I could read the website.

When I asked the employee over the phone for her name, I was told that was irrelevant, as she had been working there for 10 years and knew what she was doing.

When I asked who monitored the enrollment email, I was told, "A human."

As a Black mother, I left that conversation feeling disrespected, discredited and humiliated.

And it made me wonder:

If this is how a Black woman with a master's degree is treated while attempting to navigate a school enrollment process, what are other Black mothers, fathers or caregivers experiencing?

What happens to those of us who don't know which questions to ask or who don't have flexible work schedules? Or what happens to those who encounter this treatment and simply give up?

Berkeley has schools named after Rosa Parks and Malcolm X, two people who dedicated their lives to challenging barriers and expanding access.

Yet I found myself asking: What would they think about how Black families are treated when trying to access those opportunities today?

Malcolm X famously once said, "Education is the passport to the future." In that same speech, he warned that Black children were being "criminally shortchanged" by America's public education system and urged Black families to take advantage of every educational opportunity available.

That speech was given in 1964. Over 60 years later, his words still resonate. This experience was never just about one student and one enrollment experience.

Although Berkeley is often celebrated as one of the most sought-after districts in the Bay Area, Black students remain a small percentage of enrollment throughout the district. The question is not whether Berkeley values diversity in theory. I believe they do, but in practice, do Black families still have a space in Berkeley?

This was a strong reminder to me that no matter how educated you are in this country, you are still Black, and Black families are still being denied access when we seek opportunities for our children. I think about Kelly Williams-Bolar, the Ohio mother who was prosecuted after using her father's address so her daughters could attend a better-performing school district.

So what is the cost of Black parents seeking a better education for their children? For some of us, the answer has been criminalization. For others, humiliation. And for too many of us, it is the message that opportunity exists — but not for us.

What do we want?

I want Black parents to be treated with dignity when they advocate for their children.

I want schools named after Black leaders to honor not only their names but their values.

I want Black children to have genuine access to educational opportunities.

And I want school districts everywhere to remember that behind every enrollment application is a family trying to do the best for their child.

I deeply understood when Rosa Parks said that she was a “person with dignity and self-respect, and I should not set my sights lower than anybody else just because I was Black.”

In my case, I did everything the right way. I followed the process. I made the calls. I submitted the paperwork.

And if this is what doing it the right way looks like, then let’s stop asking Black families to engage in systems meant to shut them out.

Ty-Licia is an educator, a mother, and a contributing writer for the San Francisco Bay View

The post What happens when Black mothers follow the rules? appeared first on San Francisco Bay View.

by JR Valrey

If you want to experience a sexy, sensual, artsy and drama-filled Halloween onstage, I would expect you to attend the ‘House of Velvet: Halloween’ burlesque show at Yoshi’s in Oakland on the official night.

Juju, of Juju’s Productions, has already written, produced and directed two other burlesque shows at Yoshi’s that were presented before sold-out crowds. She has been extremely successful at reviving interest in the art of burlesque for a Black crowd in the Bay Area. Trailblazing through uncharted artistic territory in the modern era, Juju’s Productions brings a refreshing and innovative voice to the rich history of burlesque and to the current cultural fabric of the Bay Area. Check out Juju as she describes the House of Velvet.

JR Valrey: What is Juju’s Productions up to this Halloween? Can you tell us a little bit about the storyline in this upcoming ‘House of Velvet’ show?

Juju: This Halloween, Juju’s Productions is introducing “House of Velvet: Halloween” at Yoshi’s Oakland. It’s the first installment of a three-part themed burlesque series featuring performers from all backgrounds. I don’t want to give away too much of the storyline because I want people to experience it for themselves. What I can say is that when you enter the House of Velvet, you’re entering a world of mystery, glamour, music, dance and some very interesting characters. And you might want to pay attention before the show officially starts.

JR Valrey: How is the Halloween storyline different from the last Juju’s Burlesque show that was performed at Yoshi’s?

Juju: They’re actually two different productions. Juju’s Burlesque is our classic. It features an all-Black cast and pays homage to the Black women business owners, Black businesses and Black entertainers that once bustled along Seventh Street in West Oakland — the area also once carried the name “Harlem of the West”.

House of Velvet* is a new three-part themed series. It gives me the freedom to create fictional characters and different worlds while bringing together performers from all backgrounds. So I’m not changing Juju’s Burlesque. I’m expanding what we can create through Juju’s Productions.

JR Valrey: What is your creative process like when you are writing the scripts for your burlesque shows?

Juju: I usually see it before I write it. It can start with a song, a character, a costume or even one little moment I picture happening in the room. Then I start building around it.

Music is a huge part of my creative process. I’ll hear something and suddenly think, “I know exactly what I want to happen here.” From there, I’m connecting the music, choreography, characters, vocals, costumes and storytelling. I think a lot about how I want the audience to feel, not just what I want them to see.

JR Valrey: What was the most memorable thing about writing the script for this Halloween show?*

Juju: First of all, the costumes … Thinking of costumes made me realize how much fun I could have with the Halloween theme. Halloween gave me permission to be a little fun, spooky, glamorous and unpredictable all at the same time. I could create characters and situations that might not make sense anywhere else but inside the House of Velvet, they make perfect sense.

JR Valrey: What is the difference between the burlesque shows in the distant past and the burlesque shows of today? Can you share some of that history?

Juju: Burlesque has always been more than one thing. Its history includes satire, comedy, music, dance, theatrical performance and, of course, the glamour and sensuality people often associate with it. Today, burlesque artists continue to build on those traditions while bringing in their own cultures, identities, music and styles of storytelling.

That’s part of what inspired Juju’s Burlesque. I wanted our classic show to celebrate Black, beautiful and sensual performers while paying homage to the Black businesses, women entrepreneurs and entertainment culture of Seventh Street in West Oakland.

House of Velvet lets me explore another part of the art form through themed entertainment and storytelling. There is so much history in burlesque, but there’s also so much room to create something new.

JR Valrey: What should people expect from the House of Velvet Halloween show?

Juju: Come expecting a really fun Halloween night. There will be burlesque, live vocals, dancing, great costumes, characters, music and surprises. It’s sexy, spooky, theatrical and playful.

But I’m purposely not telling you everything. I want people to walk into House of Velvet not knowing exactly what’s waiting for them.

JR Valrey: Who are some of the leading women in your cast? Why did you pick them to help you bring your story to life?

Juju: We have a wonderful cast, and one of the characters audiences will meet is Madame Crush, played by Micaela. Micaela has the personality and theatrical presence I needed for that role, and she really commits to the character.

And then there’s Velvetine. Velvetine is a mystery throughout the entire three-part House of Velvet series — including the identity of the performer. So I’m not telling you anything else about her.

More broadly, I chose performers who bring individuality to the production. I don’t want everyone onstage to look, move or perform exactly the same way. Part of what makes House of Velvet exciting to me is seeing different performers bring their own energy into the same world.

JR Valrey: Where can people get tickets?

Juju: Tickets are available through Yoshis.com.

House of Velvet: Halloween takes place Saturday, October 31, 2026, at Yoshi’s Oakland, with doors opening at 7 p.m. and at 6:30 p.m. for VIP ticket holders.

This is Part One of the three-part House of Velvet series, so if you want to know what happens inside the House …

You’ll have to come in. Enter curious and leave spellbound!

JR Valrey is a veteran journalist and Editor in Chief at the San Francisco Bay View. He can be reached at JR@sfbayview.com and at IG @JRValrey

The post Juju’s House of Velvet: Halloween burlesque show gives Halloween in Oakland a sexy edge appeared first on San Francisco Bay View.

Originally published on BlackAgendaReport.com

An Open Letter from the American “Left” allegedly on behalf of unnamed persons said to be Iranian political prisoners has provided cover for U.S. imperial aggression against Iran by refusing to acknowledge Iran’s right to defend itself against zionist infiltration and ignoring the rights of Palestinian and Black political prisoners.

The recent Open Letter signed by many prominent and well-known figures from the American Left and anti-racist reformist ranks was recently printed in the British newspaper The Guardian. While it’s absolutely understood that the Western corporate media has engulfed entire swaths of humanity in an Information bubble, where the mediums of mass communication are in themselves the message, those genuinely concerned about the outright impunity of rising fascism across the Western world must challenge the corporate monopoly on disinformation, especially when it’s Black activists who use false equivalencies of “oppressive” Islam versus Western ethno-European (Christian) Democratic “freedom” to shield the Democratic Party and its Republican counterparts from complicity in Israel’s Palestinian genocide and their manufactured “war on terrorism”.

It is no coincidence that Muslims, Hamas and the Palestine resistance, Iran, Lebanon’s Hizballah and Ansur’allah (known as Houthis) are all on the front line against American and Zionist imperialism in Western Asia, and not the U.S. Socialist Left, or Progressive Liberals, not even so-called Revolutionary Black Nationalists demanding Reparations, are fighting white supremacist imperialism with their lives on the line. False equivalencies lend cover to reactionary Muslim extremists.

On the other hand, groups such as the Rapid Support Force (RSF) in Sudan, Boko Haram in Nigeria, JNIM in the Sahel, and Al-Qaida in North Africa are all covertly supported, funded and armed by America and Europe’s allies in the Gulf states of the U.A.E., Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. These proxies of Saudi Wahhabism are running amok in Africa, where the struggle for Pan-African Unity and the call for reparations are at a crucial stage. Indeed, the U.S., France and Britain have been expelled from western Africa and are looking to return under the guise of aiding in the fight against Islamic terrorism.

From the anti-migrant hysteria sweeping the metropoles of Europe, to neo-fascist ICE agents swarming through America’s cities like stormtroopers in green fatigues, the voices of radicals and revolutionaries decrying capitalism’s human slaughter of women and children through sanctions, wars and genocide, along with the planetary destruction of the environment wrought by dependence on fossil fuels, are increasingly silenced and isolated by publications such as The Guardian. The role of so-called “liberal-conservative” news outlets in distorting the voices of those demanding fundamental change is not only insidious, but effective.

But all that’s not real is camouflage. So how and why did The Guardian, a supposedly independent and neoliberal newspaper, print an obvious Left-flavored “Open Letter” supporting bogus political prisoners and while excoriating Iran’s version of government using the West’s derogatory label of an authoritarian “theocracy,” and have it signed by Black and White American Leftists with histories rooted in the anti-war movements of the 1960s and 1970s? Black Feminist anti-patriarchal activists, along with non-secular, left-leaning academic critics of America’s system of “democratic fascism”, i.e., Western democracy, all piled on as they were outraged that Iran had the audacity as an independent sovereign nation to detain, try, and execute U.S. and Mossad agents and terrorists while in a war for its very existence.

We must also ask why release such a patently absurd “Open Letter” during Black August, a month commemorating the Revolutionary Radical armed resistance of Black freedom fighters? Moreover, the letter, signed by the likes of Angela Davis and Prof. Robin Kelley, strangely coincides with a CIA-Mossad-orchestrated operation in Iran that killed hundreds of police officers and protestors prior to the zionist and U.S. military strikes that killed the leadership of the Islamic Republic, including its Supreme Leader, the Ayatollah Khamenei.

It does seem more than coincidental that just when Iran’s security agencies raided and smashed several CIA-Mossad cells, equipped with Skylink radios, weapons and bomb making materials, arresting dozens near its borders with Afghanistan and Iraq territories hosting Kurdish “Mujahideen e-Khalq,” well known as an anti-Iranian CIA Kurdish proxy that Davis and her cosignatories went all in on supposed “political prisoners,” and Iran’s use of the death penalty. Their seeming concern for “political prisoners” in Iran never once recognized the Iranian government’s right to defend itself against zionist orchestrated terrorist infiltration and murder of Iranian citizens.

Nor, for that matter, have Davis or her feminist cronies ever supported Black political prisoners of the Black Liberation Army (BLA) or from the prison-born Black Guerrilla Family (BGF) accused of killing armed agents of white supremacy commonly referred to as “law enforcement” and correctional guards. Like documented informers such as Al Sharpton, Davis and the latte Left only are comfortable with Black moral leadership by non-violent victimhood. Revolutionaries who pick up the gun to defend the physical and human integrity of their people’s community are never mere victims, they are conscious freedom fighters. To the likes of those whose “identity politics” plead for non-violent reform.

The families of victims of racist murder and police violence are worthy of Black and left support, but not necessarily by extension the advocates of identity politics, who always come out of the woodwork to demand “justice” for the grieving relatives of those murdered by the state or right wing racists. This is Black Leadership by “victimhood”. It allows public figures, sports heroes, and just plain decent human beings to come forward and pay for the funerals of grieving apolitical families. Leadership by victimhood provides inauthenticity and pulpits for the ambulance chasers, and creates funding channels for non-profit foundations, all in the name of seeking justice for the Black victims of white supremacist violence. A classic example of this was the creation of the hashtag movement “Black Lives Matter” before its leaders took the money and bounced. Meanwhile, Black Political Prisoners, like Kamau Saddiki or Mumia Abu-Jamal (who was duped into signing the Open Letter by yet-to-be-determined “supporters”) remain political afterthoughts and will probably die in prison.

So it’s no coincidence that the Open Letter signed by the likes of Angela Davis and a cabal of Left activists from the sixties, and academics pontificating on class and racism in capitalist America have found a voice at the “liberal” Guardian newspaper to camouflage their reactionary Western Islamophobia, their “westernized neoliberal anti-imperialism” that masks their endorsement of U.S. Imperialist military aggression against Iran and who cosplay a “two state solution” with the zionist settler states’ “greater Israel” expansion project without cutting their liberal funding and demonization of their academic status as “anti-Semitic”.

Like many Westernized ideologues, identity politics advocates, fake apolitical “Pan-African” culture aficionados, who claim their historical roots and struggle have less to do with capitalism white supremacist construct, and more to do with “equality for all” in the context of Bourgeois Democracy, the Open Letter is a wake up call to those who genuinely and unambiguously stand against Western democratic fascism at home, and U.S. Empire abroad.

Anti-imperialist, abolitionist activists should know that we have no allies who would throw shade on America’s military attempt to overthrow the Islamic Republic of Iran at the behest of another ethno-European-settler State, Israel, by defining captured Mossad and CIA proxy operatives (who in many cases supported or suborned the killings of scores of Iranian policemen and peaceful protesters) as “political prisoners.” Given the Guardian’s ignoble history as the neo-liberal mouthpiece of the British empire, those who consider themselves on the “right side of history” should not only challenge the political efficacy of its publication of the disingenuous “Open Letter,” but demand an accounting and a political, ethical explanation from all of its signatories. Even the origin of the Letter should be made public.

Finally, where’s the “open letter” condemning Israeli torture and rape of Palestinian prisoners, or Genocide in Gaza? Or against U.S. military and economic support for the UAE’s involvement in the Sudanese Civil war? In this age of information technology, weaponized data and the rise of A.I., “All That’s Not Real is Camouflage”.

Dhoruba Bin-Wahad is the founder of the Institute for Pan-African Policy Development in Accra, Ghana. He is a former member of the Black Panther Party (BPP) and co-founder of the Black Liberation Army (BLA). He was a leading member of the New York chapter of the BPP, a Field Secretary of the BPP responsible for organizing chapters throughout the East Coast, a member of the Panther 21, and a political prisoner. This story first appeared in Black Agenda Report.

This article was first published for the Black Agenda Report September 2026

The post Guardian foray: all that’s not real is camouflage appeared first on San Francisco Bay View.

“Power is the ability to define phenomenon and make it work in a desired manner.” – Huey P. Newton

by Leah Harmony

The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense is a loaded title. Hearing it often provokes the mainstream mockingbird media to regurgitate images of guns, leather jackets and power struggles. This is by the design of powers unseen. They want our memory of revolution trapped in ice, or promoting fear and chaos rather than inspiring organized power. But revolution was never just Beyoncé in all black on Super Bowl Sunday, replayed on the evening news. It was 10,000 bags of free groceries packed for the elderly in East Oakland. It was free sickle cell anemia screenings on neighborhood blocks before the federal government even acknowledged the disease. It was busing mothers and grandmothers to visit their people behind bars, and it was hot breakfast served to hungry children every single morning before the school bell rang.

Nobody alive understands the vast, living architecture of that struggle like Billy X Jennings.

His comrades and community call him “BJ.”

Jennings has spent decades serving as the official archivist and institutional memory of the Black Panther Party. Joining the Party in Oakland during the explosive summer of 1968 at just 17 years old, he rose through the ranks from Panther-in-training to running the East Oakland branch office, eventually serving at Central Headquarters as an aide to both Chief of Staff David Hilliard and Minister of Defense Huey P. Newton.

When the Party’s formal organization dissolved in 1982, the work did not. Recognizing that an oppressed people who rely on their oppressors to document their history will always have their narrative stolen and watered down, Jennings co-founded the alumni committee It’s About Time in 1996. Since then, he has meticulously collected, preserved, digitized and safeguarded more than 400 issues of The Black Panther newspaper, thousands of rare photographs, audio recordings and original documents from chapters across the globe.

As we mark the historic 60th anniversary of the Black Panther Party (1966-2026) and celebrate Black Panther History Month, BJ remains steadfast on the frontlines. Speaking with BJ was as fascinating as it was an honor. We had a two-hour conversation about his life, the real meaning of survival pending revolution, the necessity of community archives and the monthlong celebrations honoring the Panthers’ enduring legacy happening now. .

“Patience has its limits. Take it too far and its cowardice.” – Field Marshall George Jackson, a former prisoner of war who was assassinated in San Quentin, on August 21, 1971.

The Q&A: In conversation with Billy X Jennings

Leah: For people who don’t know what an archivist does, why don’t you explain that first?

BJ: When I explain being an archivist to people, I tell them it’s a person who collects items on certain subjects. What I do is collect information about the Black Panther Party in particular, but in general, what was happening between 1965 and 1975 around the Party. I collect newspaper articles, magazine articles, photographs and interviews — everything that pertains to the legacy from the growth of the Party in 1966 all the way to the end in 1982, and the resurgence from 1995 to the present.

We had 40-something offices and international support groups in various countries. So it’s collecting information not just about what was going on in America, but worldwide in the Black Panther Party diaspora — chapters and branches in New Zealand, Australia, the UK, Israel, Tanzania and Algeria.

Since I’ve been archivist, I’ve encouraged each chapter and branch to get their own history. If we don’t collect and have our own information and a source for our information, we’re relying on the enemy or sources beyond our community to determine what’s factual for us.

Leah: How did you first join the Party in Oakland?

BJ: I joined in the summer of 1968. I was 17 years old. I had just moved to Oakland from Coronado, California, where my dad was in the service. I went to summer school at Laney College because Laney was the first junior college offering a Black history class.

One day, I was in class and heard chanting: “Free Huey! Off the pig!” Huey Newton’s trial was starting three blocks away at the Alameda County Courthouse. I followed the chanting, saw this big demonstration in support of Huey, and around that same time I was reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X. I started attending rallies every day, learning about the Party. One of the distribution managers for the newspaper lived in my apartment complex, and he started taking me to political education classes.

Back in those days, you had to go through a six-week training period. You couldn’t just become a Panther. You had a book list with 30 or 35 books — Chairman Mao’s Red Book, Frantz Fanon, other revolutionaries. You had to digest that, learn the rules of the Party, attend political education classes twice a week, sell The Black Panther newspaper and obtain a weapon for self-defense. On my 18th birthday, Sept. 8, 1968, the leadership promoted me to be an honorary Panther. That was the exact day the jury came back with the verdict of involuntary manslaughter in Huey’s trial, and the police went crazy — they even shot up our office on 45th and Grove that night.

Leah: How did you move from working the offices to being assigned directly to Huey P. Newton?

BJ: Because I had office skills, I was promoted to staff at the East Oakland office on 73rd and East 14th, and later put in charge of it. After about a year and a half, I was promoted to Central Headquarters working closely with David Hilliard.

When Huey got out of jail on appeal in 1970, the Central Committee promoted me to be one of Huey’s aides. My job was to be with Huey when he went to court, have lunch with him and our attorney Charles Garry, and make sure he got there safely. Out of that, the Central Committee and Huey had me working with his family. Mr. and Mrs. Newton were senior citizens and couldn’t drive anymore. I was living three blocks from the family, so part of my responsibility was taking care of the Newton family — driving them to the pharmacy, mowing their lawn and looking out for them.

Leah: What caused the Party to expand beyond self-defense into all the community survival programs?

BJ: In 1968, we dropped “for Self-Defense” from our name because we were more than just a self-defense organization. If you look at our Ten-Point Program, we became an organization that dealt with a multitude of community problems.

It really started with the Free Breakfast for Children Program in 1969 at St. Augustine’s Church on 27th and West Street. Because we had over 40 offices across the country, Bobby Seale made every office start a breakfast program, and it became a national movement.

Then we opened free medical clinics. If you were a doctor, nurse or med student, you could volunteer. We created the Senior Escort Service. When we first started, we used station wagons that people donated, driving seniors to the bank to cash their checks safely so they wouldn’t get mugged.

We had the Oakland Community School, which served 200 students, plus after-school programs where youth learned music, martial arts and Afro-Haitian dance. In 1972, we gave away 10,000 free bags of groceries in East Oakland, tested 7,000 to 8,000 people for sickle cell anemia, and registered 5,000 to 6,000 people to vote in a single campaign. The social programs made the difference because the people saw the Panthers helping their grandmothers, feeding their kids and providing services the system refused to give.

Leah: How did “It’s About Time” come together in 1996, and how did you start the archive?

BJ: In the 1980s, I lived in Mountain View, Sacramento and New York, but when I came back to Sacramento in 1995, many former Party members had migrated from Oakland to Sacramento. We started running into each other at soccer games and pool parties, and someone said, “Hey, our 30th reunion is coming up. We should do something.”

In 1996, we organized the 30-year reunion at Jack London Square in Oakland, and about 400 Panthers showed up. The energy was so high — like Fred Hampton used to say, people got high on the revolution! Nobody wanted to let that feeling go.

There was money left over, so I started publishing a newsletter called It’s About Time. I sent it to about 600 Panthers, and it grew.

In 1997, along with young comrades like JR Valrey and Boots Riley from the Young Comrades, we organized Geronimo Ji-Jaga Day when Geronimo got out of prison after 27 years. In 1998, we started Bobby Hutton Day, which still happens every year. That same year, I launched the It’s About Time website (itsabouttimebpp.com) because there was no website dedicated to Panther history run by a Panther. People saw it and started donating materials, letters and collections.

Leah: You have a deep relationship with the SF Bay View newspaper. How do you see the paper’s role in this lineage?

BJ: The Bay View paper to me is just like The Black Panther newspaper of today. There is no other newspaper in this nation that carries more information about the Black Panther Party than the Bay View. Not the Amsterdam News, not the Chicago Defender, not the Los Angeles Sentinel.

The Bay View carries more prisoner news and grassroots Bay Area news than any other outlet. When I got back to California, we had a Books Behind Bars program, and that free Black newspaper was the biggest feature. We had hundreds of prisoners on our list, and that paper made every prison — Pelican Bay, Folsom, San Quentin, Angola in Louisiana, Beaumont in Texas. Fifty or 60 brothers would pass around that one paper until it was worn out.

Leah: Tell us about the events happening this month for the 60th anniversary and Black Panther History Month.

BJ: In 2001, It’s About Time created the concept of Black Panther History Month in October so chapters across the country didn’t have to pack everything onto one day.

This October, for the 60th anniversary, we have several major events:

Alameda County Law Library exhibit: Running from Oct. 6 through January at 125 12th St. in Oakland (across from the Oakland Museum). It focuses on the Black Panther Party and the law, including the 10-Point Program, the murder of Bobby Hutton and historic legal battles. The opening reception is Friday, Oct. 16, from 1 to 4 p.m.

Oakland Main Library exhibit: Running from Oct. 6 through January in the Oakland History Room at 14th and Oak Street. The reception is Thursday, Oct. 15, from 5 to 7 p.m., kicking off our four-day conference.

Oakland Museum program: On Friday night, Oct. 16, from 5 to 9 p.m., the museum is hosting a special Panther program featuring artists and bands.

Conference workshops: During the conference, I’m hosting a workshop called “Chapter Histories” so people can learn about the work done in Chicago, New York, Seattle and beyond directly from comrades who organized there.

Day in Bobby Hutton Park: On Sunday, Oct. 18, from noon to 5 p.m. at DeFremery Park (18th and Adeline in West Oakland), we’ll have music, speakers, food and a gathering for comrades and community. We just added Money B who will be signing his new book: A DU Party Don’t stop: The Money B Story.

I also have a book coming out titled Keeping Our Legacy Alive: The Memoirs of Billy X Jennings, Black Panther Party Historian.

Talking to Billy X Jennings is a reminder that the Black Panther Party was never a brief moment in time; they left a blueprint for human liberation that is perhaps even more relevant now. The powers-that-shouldn’t-be spent billions of the people’s dollars erasing revolutionary memory, whitewashing struggle into vanilla corporate holidays and textbook sidebars.

Archivists like BJ are the antidote to historical amnesia. By guarding the photographs, the original correspondence, the underground newspapers and the firsthand documentation of survival programs, he makes sure that the next generation of freedom fighters does not have to figure it out themselves, from square one.

As BJ says, archiving begins at home.

It begins when we label our family photos, record the stories of our elders and preserve our community newspapers. We need to hold safe our story for history.

To explore the archives, view historic films or support the work of Black Panther alumni, visit itsabouttimebpp.com <http://www.itsabouttimebpp.com/>.

Leah Harmony is a journalist and Manager of Production at the San Francisco Bay View. She can be reached at leah@sfbayview.com

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“We want an end to the robbery by the CAPITALISTS of our Black community.” That was our position in October 1966 and it is still our position … However, many people have offered the community Black capitalism as a solution to our problems. We recognize that people in the Black community have no general dislike for the concept of Black capitalism, but this is not because they are in love with capitalism. Not at all.”

By Huey P. Newton

The Black Panther Party, as we begin to carry out the original vision of the Party. When we coined the expression “All Power to the People,” we had in mind emphasizing the word “Power,” for we recognize that the will to power is the basic drive of man. But it is incorrect to seek power over people. We have been subjected to the dehumanizing power of exploitation and racism for hundreds of years; and the Black community has its own will to power also. What we seek, however, is not power over people, but the power to control our own destiny. For us the true definition of power is not in terms of how many people you can control. To us power is, first of all, the ability to define phenomena, and secondly the ability to make these phenomena act in a desired manner.

We see then that power has a dual character and that we cannot simply identify and define phenomena without acting, for to do so is to become an armchair philosopher. And when Bobby and I left Merritt College to organize brothers on the block, we did so because the college students were too content to sit around and analyze without acting. On the other hand, power includes action, for it is making phenomena perform in the desired manner. But action without thinking and theory is also incorrect. If the social forces at work in the community have not been correctly analyzed and defined, how can you control them in such a way that they act in a desired manner? So the Black Panther Party has always merged theory and practice in such a way as to serve the true interests of the community.

In merging theory with practice, we recognized that it was necessary to develop a theory which was valid for more than one time and place. We wanted to develop a system of thinking which was good anywhere, thus it had to be rather abstract. Yet our theory would relate to a concrete analysis of concrete conditions so that our actions would always be relevant and profitable to the people. Yet, at the same time, it had to advance their thinking so that they would move toward a transformation of their situation of exploitation and oppression. We have always insisted on good theory and good practice, but we have not always been successful in carrying this through.

‘When the Black Panther Party defected from the Black community, we became, for a while, revolutionary cultists. One of the primary characteristics of a revolutionary cultist is that he despises everyone who has not reached his level of consciousness, or the level of consciousness that he thinks he has reached, instead of acting to bring the people to that level. In that way the revolutionary cultist becomes divided from the people; he defects from the community. Instead of serving the people as a vanguard, he becomes a hero. Heroes engage in very courageous actions sometimes, and they often make great sacrifices, including the supreme sacrifice, but they are still isolated from the people. Their courageous actions and sacrifices do not lead the people to a higher level of consciousness, nor do they produce fundamental changes in the exploitation and oppression of the people. A vanguard, however, will guide the people onto higher levels of consciousness and that way bring them to the point where they will take sterner actions in their own interests and against those who continue to oppress them. As I’ve said previously, revolution is a process, not a conclusion. A true revolutionist will not only take courageous actions, he will also try to advance the people in such a manner that they will transform their situation. That I, by delivering power to the people the true revolutionist will help them define the social phenomena in their community and lead them to the point where they will seize the time and make these phenomena act in a desired manner.

Therefore, as revolutionaries we must recognize the difference between what the people can do and what they will do. They can do anything they desire to do, but they will only take those actions which are consistent with their level of consciousness and their understanding of the situation. When we raise their consciousness, they will understand even more fully what they in fact can do, and they will move on the situation in a courageous manner. This is merging your theory with your practices. Point 3 of the original Ten-Point Program of the Black Panther Party is “We want an end to the robbery by the CAPITALISTS of our Black Community.”

That was our position in October 1966 and it is still our position. We recognize that capitalism is no solution to the problems we face in our communities. Capitalist exploitation is one of the basic causes of our problem. It is the goal of the Black Panther Party to negate capitalism in our communities and in the oppressed communities throughout the world.

However, many people have offered the community Black capitalism as a solution to our problems. We recognize that people in the Black community have no general dislike for the concept of Black capitalism, but this is not because they are in love with capitalism. Not at all. The idea of Black capitalism has come to mean to many people Black control of another one of the institutions in the community. We see within this characteristic the seeds of the negation of Black capitalism and all capitalism in general. What we must do then is increase the positive qualities until they dominate the negative and therefore transform the situation.

In the past the Black Panther Party took a counter revolutionary position with our blanket condemnation of Black capitalism. Our strategy should have been to analyze the positive and negative qualities of this phenomenon before making any condemnation. Even though we recognized, and correctly so, that capitalism is no solution or answer, we did not make a truly dialectical analysis of the situation. We recognized that in order to bring the people to the level of consciousness where they would seize the time, it would be necessary to serve their interests in survival by developing programs which would help them to meet their daily needs. For a long time we have had such programs not only for survival but for organizational purposes. Now we not only have a breakfast program for schoolchildren, we have clothing programs, we have health clinics which provide free medical and dental services, we have programs for prisoners and their families, and we are opening clothing and shoe factories to provide for more of the needs of the community.In a way our new position has the simplicity and completeness of a mathematical formula.

When the Black capitalist contributes to the survival programs and makes a contribution to the community, the community will give him their support and thus strengthen his business. If he does not make any contribution to the survival of the community, the people will not support him and his enterprise will wither away because of his own negligence. By supporting the community, however, he will be helping to build the political machine that will eventually negate his exploitation of the community, but also negate his being exploited and victimized by corporate capitalism.

So we will heighten the contradiction between the Black community and corporate capitalism, while at the same time reducing the contradiction between the Black capitalist and the Black community. In this way Black capitalism will be transformed from a relationship of exploitation of the community to a relationship of service to the community, which will contribute to the survival of everyone.

Original publication: Huey P. Newton, “Black Capitalism Re-Analyzed,” The Black Panther: Intercommunal News Service, June 5, 1971 (supplement). Archival scan: https:// cdn.filepicker.io/api/file/Mum1pt7RZ6jYSUs1kh2v?fit=max

The post BLACK CAPITALISM RE-ANALYZED: JUNE 5, 1971- HUEY NEWTON appeared first on San Francisco Bay View.

The Hunters Point Community Biomonitoring Program proposes to export it’s award winning community exposure research model to establish the first comprehensive monitoring and surveillance system customized for an AI Data Center Campus. The proposed model incorporates human biomonitoring and geospatial mapping along with environmental monitoring of air, soil, noise, temperature and the built environment.

“HBM is the only way to identify and quantify human exposure and risk, elucidate the mechanism of toxic effects and ultimately decide if measures have to be taken to reduce exposure.” Human Biomonitoring: State of the Art, Jurgen Angerer et al. Int J Hyg Environ Health May 2007

Biomonitoring detects pollution in people! As a method for measuring toxic chemicals in human tissues, HBM is a proven tool for studying harmful environmental chemicals to confirm exposures and validate public health policies. Human biomonitoring detects environmental chemicals and their metabolites in urine, blood, breast milk or hair.

Unlike environmental monitoring to detect chemicals in air, soil, water or buildings, HBM measures chemicals that have entered the human body via inhalation, ingestion, skin absorption and secondary smoke exposure:

Population biomonitoring was first applied to environmental public health in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s reduction of lead in gasoline in 1986. The modern era of HBM began in 1993 when the National Human Exposure Assessment Survey addressed human exposures to multiple chemicals including metals, pesticides and volatile organic compounds using aggregate analysis.

Developing a Conceptual Site Model for an Urban AI Data Center in Southeast San Francisco

A Conceptual Site Model (CSM) is a written and illustrative summary that explains how contaminants move through a site affecting people and the environment. A CSM acts as a dynamic scientific hypothesis that characterizes wind currents, geology, hydrogeology, the physical plant of the built environment and site history integrated into a comprehensive reference tool.

The National Research Council report Human Exposure Assessment for Airborne Pollutants concludes:

“Monitoring the environment by identifying and measuring concentrations of chemicals in media (e.g. air, water and soil) is not, by itself, an adequate basis for assessing human exposures. HBM offers an improved understanding of potential health risks through the detection of “biomarkers” of exposure that indicate the progressive response to exposures in the human body that lead to disease…before disease occurs.”

When developing a Conceptual Site Model (CSM) for comprehensive monitoring of an AI Data Center Campus situated in a San Francisco neighborhood, the model must characterize the historical legacy of contamination of the site and operational hazards unique to high-density AI infrastructure.

The 200–400 Paul Avenue AI Data Center Campus colocates eight active operating data centers located across the street from homes and a residential cul de sac at the Paul Avenue/Exeter intersection. The three block long, three block wide facility is sited on a street zoned for light industry. The Data Center approved for this location in 2014 as an Internet Electrical Service is an outdated mitigated negative declaration that identified a host of adverse human impacts. [320–400 Paul Avenue Internet Services Exchange Facility — https://ceqanet.lci.ca.gov/2014062031]

Despite being a recognized global leader in AI, San Francisco has no land use designations for data centers or requirements for water, land or electrical grid usage. San Francisco is the site of 15 AI Data Centers requiring that private tech corporations apply for a conditional use permit through the city’s Planning Commission. AI Data Centers are designated heavy industry as a result of serious impacts to air quality, noise pollution and local temperature increases.

The Digital Realty campus is situated one block west from the major neighborhood transit station at Paul Avenue and Third Street. It is boundaried on the east by Caltrain tracks and open windows of senior high rise apartments on Armstrong and Carroll Avenues:

“We are the home of AI, and we should lean into it. We should absolutely make sure guardrails are in place, but I don’t think that’s the job of the Mayor of San Francisco.”

Because AI Data Centers require massive power configurations, specialized cooling, and diesel powered emergency battery grids, a thorough CSM must incorporate site specific impacts including:

Contaminant Sources including historical and legacy sources in the Site Profile. Urban San Francisco industrial zones contain fill material, legacy manufacturing and former maritime uses. Key legacy contaminants include PCBs, heavy metals including lead and arsenic, PAHs and VOCs from manufacturing and auto repair failities.

Operational Sources including Diesel/Methane emergency Backup Generators that rely on massive underground or above ground storage tanks introducing exposure to diesel fuel, benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene leaks.

Uninterrupted Power Supply Systems include large arrays of lead-acid or lithium-ion batteries and threats of human exposure to sulfuric acid leaks, heavy metals and thermal runaway byproducts.

Industrial Cooling Infrastructure required by extreme heat generated by AI chips. Chemical additives of liquid cooling loops include anti-fouling biocides and corrosion inhibitors used in cooling towers and closed loops.

Migration Pathways for Human and Ecological Exposures including subsurface migration to Bay groundwater exposing San Francisco waterfront neighborhoods with shallow water tables. Spills or legacy plumes migrate horizontally to contaminate aquifers leading to marine ecosystems.

Vapor Intrusion Framework: Volatile contaminants including chlorinated solvents or fuels migrate vertically pward through urban utility corridors, sewer linges and foundation cracks into the indoor air of the data center or neighboring commercial and residential buildings.

Utility Corridors and Express Routes for Liquid or Vapor phase contaminants to migrate offsite.

Air Dispersion Line: Point-source emissions from backup generators release concentrated nitrogen oxides (NOx), fine particulates (PM2.5) and heat.

Human and Ecological Receptors include onsite occupational workers. Data center technicians, facility engineers, and security personnel face chronic cumulative indoor exposure via vapor intrusion or acute direct contact with cooling loops or battery yards.

Offsite Urban Residents in high density industrialized neighborhoods adjacent to data center footprints are the primary sensitive receptors for outdoor air emissions generated by generator testing and localized noise pollution as high as 90 dB.

Construction Workers & Utility Workers performing deep soil excavation, fiber-optic line maintenance or utility repairs directly exposed to contaminated groundwater or soil gas.

Ecological Receptors including marine life and avian populations endangered by storm runoff or ground water discharge of untreated contaminants or cooling water into nearby Bay channels.

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The Conceptual Site Model is completed by tracing the intersection of these impacts in an Exposure Routes Matrix. The major contaminant groups include volatile organic compounds and solvents, heavy metals and PAHs, petroleum hydrocarbons, particulate matter and NOx.

Environmental justice advocates agree diesel generators are expensive, noisy, dangerously polluting and exempt from Clean Air Act regulation during energy “emergencies.” [https://insideclimatenews.org/news/12112025/data-center-diesel-generators-noise-pollution/]

The clear and present danger posed by the siting of AI Data Centers in city residential neighborhoods serves as a clarion call for environmental scientists, environmental justice advocates and experts in the science of human biomonitoring. (HBM)

The Hunters Point Community Biomonitoring Program launched in January of 2019 as the nations first independent community HBM program established to offer residents and workers at a Federal Superfund site fast, accurate, low cost access to urinary toxic exposure screenings capable of detecting 35 toxicants documented to contaminate air, soil and the built environment.

Funded by CalEPA EJ grants in 2020 and fiscally sponsored by Greenaction for Environmental Health and Justice, HP Biomonitoring and it’s Principal Investigator — Dr. Ahimsa Porter Sumchai MD — were awarded the KPIX/CBS Jefferson Award in July 2020 and the coveted UCSF Medical Alumna of the Year Award in 2021. [https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/san-francisco-doctor-researches-impact-of-toxic-dump-on-hunters-point/]

Biomonitoring for detecting toxic chemicals in human tissue was first enacted by the EPA in 1967 when the National Human Monitoring Program established an exposure based assessment to detect pesticides in fatty tissue. HBM was subsequently used to detect and prevent exposures to lead, PCB’s and the pesticide DDT.

Research on Human Exposure to AI Data Centers

“The report calls on EPA to reverse course to…restore and enforce pollution safequards, make sure data centers and their on-site power are properly permitted and monitored, with meaninful public review before major decisions are locked in; and maintain and rebuild the science, monitoring and enforcement capacity need to understand what facilities are emitting and make sure the law is followed.”

Research on the human health impacts of the rapid expansion of AI Data Centers adjacent to vulnerable neighborhoods and transit hubs is in it’s embryonic stage and includes no independent studies on human and environmental monitoring. The Environmental Protection Network calls for a “Data Center Health Protection Pledge” so Americans don’t pay for the AI boom with their health. The four key findings of the report are summarized as:

1. The health toll is substantial but we do not know the full scale.
2. Data Centers drive pollution nearby and far from their location.
3. At least 30 federal actions weaken the regulatory oversight designed to prevent the rapid expansion and build out of AI Data Centers, how data centers are powered, what pollution safeguards apply and how projects are sited and approved.
4. Vulnerable exposed communities are left with less information, less say and less recourse.

“EPA should measure how the buildout is changing pollution, who is being exposed and what that means for health, and make that information public.”

Examples drawn from real life include the raging controversy over Elon’s Musk’s xAI artifical intelligence facility — touted as “the world’s largest supercomputer facility. The Colossus training cluster is located in a predominantly black area of South Memphis Tennessee that struggles with economic hardship and poor health outcomes impacted by industrial pollution from a steel mill, coal fired plant, an oil refinery and an existing natural gas power plant. [Tech, Toxins, and Memphis: Evaluating the Environmental Footprint of the xAI Facility — https://www.tba.org/?pg=Hastings2025AIX]

The xAI facility currently deploys 20 gas turbines with a 100 MW combined capacity. Over five years, plans to add 15 more gas turbines are expected to generate an estimated 57.55 tons of hazardous pollutants contributing to extreme levels of ozone, particulates and nitrogen oxides. The facility has not obtained permits from the County Health Department and Elon Musk’s companies have a legacy of accepting fines for environmental law violations to avoid regulation.

The Tennessee Bar Association evaluated the footprint of the xAI Facility and identified three major environmental concerns, (1) Air pollution and permitting failure, (2) Water usage and potential threats to the aquifer and (3) Energy consumption and its impact on the power grid.

The Paul Avenue AI Data Center Campus underwent EIR Review in 2014. Reviewing agencies included over 20 state agencies including California Air Resources Board. The original review of the 243,000 square foot facility did not include state or local health agencies, despite the fact the Paul Avenue facility lies across the street from homes, a block away from a transit station and less than a quarter of a mile from Bret Harte Elementary School and Two Jacks Sea Food.

The original 2014 CEQA review documents SFMTA T-third light rail and Caltrain railways, “various schools” and San Francisco Bay waterways as project “issues”.

The conditional use permit issuance documents multiple project impacts including air quality, biological resources, hazards and hazardous materials, noise, cumulative effects, public services and land use considerations. [https://ceqanet.lci.ca.gov/2014062031]

Paul Avenue courses a block from Hollister Avenue — where District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton claims his residential address. It is inconceivable the Supervisor would endanger himself…and family by siting a complex of AI Data Centers east of his San Francisco address.

The Hunters Point Biomonitoring Foundation and Toxic Registry proposes the launch and establishment of a pilot program designed to evaluate the feasibility of the HP Biomonitoring AI Data Center Comprehensive Monitoring Program. The goals of the one year pilot program are:

1. The creation of a Conceptual Site Model for the 200–400 Paul Avenue AI Data Center Campus.
2. The creation of the one mile target zone centered at the intersection of the Paul Avenue/Exeter residential neighborhood and export of the community exposure research model developed for monitoring the Federal Superfund System at Hunters Point, Yosemite Slough and Candlestick Point.

3. Installation of a system of monitors around the three block perimeter of the Paul Avenue campus in keeping with protocols created by Greenaction for Health & Environmental Justice in siting the Marie Harrison Bayview Air Monitoring system.

4. The AI Data Center Comprehensive Monitoring Program must demonstrate the capacity to detect toxic air contaminants, volatile organic compounds and criteria pollutants regulated by the U.S. EPA under the National Ambient Air Quality Standards using scientific criteria to protect public health and the environment. The six criteria pollutants are ground-level ozone, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and lead. [Criteria Air Pollutants/US EPA — https://www.epa.gov/criteria-air-pollutants]

5. The AI Data Center Comprehensive Monitoring Program must demonstrate the capacity to measure noise pollution in decibels and to distinguish ambient noise levels at a transit station and railroad tracks from noise emanating from the Paul Avenue Campus. Preliminary noise analysis detects baseline noise levels as high as 70 dB at the transit station. The AI Data Center noise surveillance must include late night readings obtained at the perimeter of the facility to exclude traffic and transit noise pollution.

6. The AI Data Center Comprehensive Monitoring Program must demonstrate the capacity to isolate and graphically analyze heat generated by the facility measured in Farenheit.

7. The AI Data Center Comprehensive Monitoring Program must recruit, educate, consent and enroll residents and workers within the one mile target zone of the Paul Avenue facility for urinary biomonitoring using the Mosaic Diagnostic EnviroTOX Complete + Metals Test to detect the combined impact of environmental toxicants, toxic heavy metals and mycotoxins. EnviroTox Complete detects biomarkers highly specific for Data Center biomonitoring including breakdown products of benzene and other volatile organic compounds and organic acids.

Ahimsa Porter Sumchai MD – PoliticoMD

The post HP Biomonitoring Launches Pilot Proposal for Comprehensive Monitoring of the Paul Avenue AI Data Center Campus located in South Central Bayview Hunters Point appeared first on San Francisco Bay View.

by JR Valrey

The legendary playwright, author, professor, musician and modern-day Renaissance man known for placing political and social criticism in his work is at it again with his new play, “Amanuensis,” which debuts Oct. 9 at the Black Repertory Theater in Berkeley and will run for two consecutive weekends.

The Bay Area-based social critic Ishmael Reed sat down for this Q&A and discussed “Amanuensis” and its relationship to “Uncle Remus’ Stories” and Disney’s stolen, billion-dollar adaptation, “Song of the South.” We also went into the importance of the SF Bay View newspaper and the Black Repertory Theater. Check out “Uncle Ish” in his own words.

JR Valrey: Your new play is titled “The Amanuensis.” What does that word mean? Why did you use this word to title your most recent play?

Ishmael Reed: An amanuensis is someone who takes dictation. Though white supremacists give Joel Chandler Harris credit for “The Uncle Remus Stories,” he merely wrote down stories that were told to him by three of the enslaved on the Turner Plantation. He never claimed the stories originated with him.

JR Valrey: Interestingly, your new play deals with a part of history that includes Walt Disney and his company’s adaptation of “The Uncle Remus’ Stories.” Why did you feel that these occurrences deserved to be the subject of your play, “The Amanuensis”?

Ishmael Reed: Through research, I found the names of the plays’ originators: Old Harbart, Aunt Crissy and George Teller. Disney made millions from “Song of the South,” and he paid Chandler, a pro-slavery writer who mocked Black Reconstruction legislators and benefited handsomely from property that didn’t belong to him.

This kind of rip-off is a constant feature in Black history, like the multibillion-dollar industry based on Rock and Roll, which profited Elvis Presley and others. Writer Zora Neale Hurston mentioned Rock and Roll in the 1940s.

JR Valrey: What part does theater play in the tradition of Black resistance?

Ishmael Reed: Black theater from early times was a theater of resistance.

JR Valrey: Why did you choose to open “Amanuensis” on Oct. 8 at the Black Repertory Theater in Berkeley? What do you think about that space?

Ishmael Reed: I began as a playwright at the Black Repertory Theater when the late Nora Vaughn commissioned me to write about the crack epidemic. The play was called “Hubba City.”

Though local reviewers slammed it, the premier New York critic at the time, Clive Barnes, raved about the play when it reached New York. “Gethsemane Park” was a Gospera with a book by me and music composed by Carman Moore, who was elected to the exclusive American Academy a few years ago. It traveled to San Francisco and New York. Another play, “Mother Hubbard,” began at the Black Repertory Theater and traveled to Hunan, China.

JR Valrey: Why do you support newspapers like the SF Bay View newspaper, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year?

Ishmael Reed: You have a pro-Confederate administration that’s trying to stamp out Black culture and opinion. There has been a purge of Blacks, Latinos and Asian Americans from the mainstream media, so the independent Black press is all that we have. Award-winning journalist Ron Scott of The New York Amsterdam News visited the Black Repertory Theater last week and was very impressed. The New York Amsterdam News, the SF Bay View and other Black newspapers are the last outposts of Black opinion.

Scott was here to receive an American Book Award for his outstanding jazz and theater criticism. He was very impressed with the work performed by the Black Repertory Theater, even though they get nothing but criticism from the local media except for the SF Bay View and the Oakland Post. He also visited the African American Museum and said it was more beautiful than the Schomburg.

Who else is impressed with the Black Repertory Theater? The Mellon Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation, which is sponsoring an event there on Nov. 14 featuring the great novelist Charles Johnson, whose novel “The Middle Passage” became a major Hollywood movie.

You know who is not impressed with the Black Repertory Theater? Their enemies in the Berkeley City Council who prostrate themselves before the Berkeley Repertory Theater, “the white Rep,” and every mediocre white theater in town, awarding them millions of dollars while subjecting the Black Repertory Theater to decades of harassment. I wrote an article about the harassment for Alta magazine, https://www.altaonline.com/culture/a38403159/black-repertory-ishmael-reed/, including the unlawful entry into the theater by an aide to a councilman who used a crowbar to break in.

We need somebody to investigate the source of hostility toward the Black Repertory Theater coming from elements in the Berkeley City Council, while they’ve built three theaters for the Berkeley Repertory Theater! “The white Rep” and other white theaters receive hundreds of thousands of dollars from them. While the city won’t pay the Black Repertory Theater a piddling $25,000 per year or make repairs, they’re building “the white Rep” a hotel for out-of-town actors so they can save on rentals, while they harass the Black Rep with surprise inspections and sneaking around for “gotcha” moments.

Every play I’ve seen at the Berkeley Repertory Theater that includes Black characters stereotypes them. They turned Zora Neale Hurston’s play, “Spunk,” into a minstrel show. Both poet Judy Juanita and I were racially profiled at the “white Rep.” Some Black child was instructed to stalk me and be very rude to me when I went to see “The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years.” I was only there because of the great actress and diva, the late Vinnie Burrows, who was starring in the play and invited me. Vinnie played the lead role in the New York run of “Hubba City.”

The way racists operate in Berkeley is to hire Black children and other Blacks to do their dirty work, spy on Blacks in retail stores and elsewhere. These people are pathetic. I was racially profiled at the U.C. campus bookstore by a Black man.

The Black Rep has a summer program that keeps Black youth off the streets. They rehearse a play during that period. Their production of “The Wiz” was better than the movie version. Their enemies at the council even tried to undermine that program. Incidentally, the councilman’s assistant who unlawfully entered the theater using a crowbar was involved in a scandal that made the news. He’s still on the councilman’s payroll.

JR Valrey: What is the importance of Black people supporting our own community institutions?

Ishmael Reed: The Black Repertory Theater doesn’t get the support it deserves. In fact, there are powerful Blacks who have traditionally opposed the Black Repertory Theater, but like its enemies on the city council, you never see them at Black Repertory plays. But the Black Rep has a loyal following that supports them. When one of the mayors tried to secretly choose someone to replace the current producers, the Black Rep fans rallied. The people showed up at city council meetings to support the Black Rep.

JR Valrey: You have been a playwright, author, professor and more in a career that spans more than 60 years. How do you feel when you put out new work?

Ishmael Reed: My point of view is not welcomed by the corporate media. Twice within the last year, my views have been distorted by The New York Times, where Lin-Manuel Miranda’s biographer Daniel Pollack Pelzner dismissed me as a “left-wing provocateur” as a result of my play, “The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda,” which challenges the billion-dollar fraud, “Hamilton’s” portrayal of Alexander Hamilton as an “ardent abolitionist.” He was involved in the slave trade for all of his life. His in-laws were traffickers, and so was his wife. Then The New York Times ran a piece by art critic Deborah Solomon accusing me of “pigeonholing” Black painters. They didn’t print my letter challenging Miranda’s biographer, and they didn’t print my reply pointing out that Solomon hadn’t read the essay in which I was supposed to have pigeonholed Black painters. She sent me a private note telling me how much she admired my work.

So stage, poetry, songwriting and fiction are how I get my views known. I’m also a musician with three CDs out. The latest is “Everytime I Feel The Spirit,” in which I play over 20 of my piano compositions.

Like Sean Vaughn Scott has to use his salary, his grandfather and Mona Vaughn Scott had to use their Social Security checks to keep the Black Rep going; I have to use my own funds to provide actors with roles that are different from the slop that Hollywood and corporate TV offers them, like the recycled minstrel shows “The Wire” or “The Deuce,” both by David Simon, who plays on stereotypes that were applied to his people in Nazi Germany, where Jewish men pimped Aryan women.

Those were popular images in the Nazi media. Yet thousands of Blacks are crazy about “The Wire” and “Hamilton.” Goes to figure.

Paul Schrader, who, according to Cecil Brown, ripped off a Black writer’s script for his movie “Blue Collar,” has come up with such a foul movie about Black life that even Black actors turned it down, so it must be terrible. He said he’s going to use Artificial Intelligence to substitute for Black actors.

I have a couple of patrons, but most of the money comes out of my pocket for my new play, “The Revenge of King Ludd,” which tackles the racism and anti-Semitism of two of the most powerful men in the world, Peter Thiel and Elon Musk. We will do four readings at Theater 33 in San Francisco Dec. 4, 5, 11 and 12, and a three-week performance at American Theater of Actors in New York beginning Nov. 30. I have a GoFundMe effort up, but it has stalled. https://www.gofundme.com/f/living-newspaper-king-ludd-amanuensis

Now dig this: Because my plays are performed at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe after being performed at the Black Repertory Theater, and because that theater is funded by The New York State Council of the Arts, my plays have received more support from that organization than from the California Council of the Arts, which turned me down for the second year. I applied for a Master’s Grant and wasn’t even told why they turned me down.

JR Valrey is a veteran journalist and Editor in Chief at the San Francisco Bay View. He can be reached at JR@sfbayview.com

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by Tiara Mbonisi

Before Reign Chapman ever stepped into a professional kitchen, his culinary education had already begun in Oakland’s diverse food scene.

It was carne asada tacos and super burritos from the trucks along East 14th in Fruitvale. Chinese food from neighborhood spots by Lake Merritt. Halal lamb shared with family and community over iftar with his grandfather and Friday night soul food dinners at his grandmother’s house. At home, it was standing beside his mother in the kitchen, learning how ingredients became meals and meals became a reason for people to gather.

Growing up in the Bay meant growing up in a melting pot, and food was one of the ways Reign learned to experience it.

Food also runs deep on both sides of his family — so deep that Thanksgiving becomes an annual negotiation. Home cooks and trained chefs on both his mother’s and father’s sides compete for real estate at the holiday table, leaving the family bouncing between gatherings year after year to give both sides their due. His paternal grandmother is known for her roast and crab boils; his maternal great-aunt for collard greens, black-eyed peas and mac and cheese. In Reign’s family, good food isn’t reserved for restaurants. It is inheritance, celebration and a love language.

Today, the Oakland-raised young chef is preparing for his next chapter after being accepted to the Culinary Institute of America in New York, one of the country’s most respected culinary schools. But his journey there began long before the acceptance letter.

Reign started cooking regularly with his mother around age 11. By 13, he was telling his parents he wanted to become a chef. His father challenged him to decide whether cooking was something he truly wanted to pursue, then gave him tools to find out: chef books and Gordon Ramsay’s MasterClass.

Reign kept cooking.

At MetWest High School in Oakland, he got his first opportunity to take that passion beyond his family’s kitchen. MetWest’s internship model encouraged students to venture into their communities, find mentors and gain real-world experience in fields they imagined for themselves. For Reign, that meant food.

His first internship was at Crispian Bakery in Alameda, where he began learning the rhythms and expectations of a professional kitchen. He later interned at Oakland’s Duende under Chef Paul, a Culinary Institute of America alumnus who would eventually work at CIA’s Napa Valley campus. Those experiences helped transform cooking from something Reign loved into something he could envision building a life around.

Then his family moved more than 2,000 miles away, from Oakland to Atlanta.

There, Reign found a new culinary community through Navigate, a training program where he strengthened his knowledge of food safety and professional techniques while gaining hands-on experience throughout the city. He prepared food for events at the Georgia World Congress Center and Georgia Aquarium and worked in the kitchen at Mercedes-Benz Stadium during the FIFA World Cup. He also won a culinary taco competition at an Atlanta food festival! A fitting accomplishment for a young chef partly raised on East Oakland taco trucks and burritos.

At Navigate, Reign ultimately earned the program’s highest student recognition: Student of the Year. But his ambitions extend beyond becoming a skilled chef.

Reign likes serving people. He is interested in what restaurants can contribute to their communities and how the industry can become more sustainable, particularly by reducing food waste and finding creative uses for ingredients that might otherwise be discarded.

At home, food remains communal. Somewhere along the way, Reign surpassed his mother and became the primary chef in the household. Now he helps teach his younger brother to cook, passing along knowledge much the same way it was first passed to him. In many ways, Reign’s journey is a story about what can happen when a young person is allowed to grow through community.

His family taught him that food holds memory and love. Oakland taught him that a meal can carry culture, migration, faith and history. His mother’s kitchen gave him a place to experiment. His father pushed him to take his ambition seriously. MetWest opened the door to his first professional kitchens. And when his life moved across the country, Navigate gave him another community in which to grow.

Now, the Culinary Institute of America is the next doorway. Reign has earned his place there. His family is raising funds to help close the remaining gap between financial aid and the cost of attendance.

For the Bay Area community that helped shape his palate, curiosity and understanding of what it means to feed people, supporting Reign is an opportunity to help one of its own carry those lessons forward. The dishes Chef Reign creates may someday be served far beyond Oakland.

But the Bay will always be somewhere in the recipe.

https://gofund.me/cbaec222a

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by JR Valrey

For nearly three decades, Don Lacy has led the LoveLife Foundation following the tragic murder of his daughter LoEshe’ Lacy near McClymonds High School in West Oakland, which she attended. Since that time, Donald Lacy has been able to transform his pain and turn the LoveLife Foundation into one of the most important voices in the Bay Area when it comes to empowering youth.

The LoveLife Foundation’s College Summer Prep class of 2026 has graduated, and the LoveLife Foundation needs our help raising scholarship money for these youth, who have all been accepted into colleges and universities. Check out Donald Lacy as he gives us the details on this very important community program.

JR Valrey: Can you tell us a little bit about the history of your mentorship/scholarship program? What do y’all do and who does it serve?

Donald Lacy: First of all, thanks, JR, for all you do to enlighten and inform our community. Big salute. For 29 years, the LoveLife Foundation has been serving at-risk youth in Oakland and the Bay Area. The foundation was the vision of my 16-year-old daughter LoEshe’ (pronounced LO-E-SHAY, which is Ibo/Nigerian and means “LoveLife” in English). LoEshe’ was a successful conflict resolution mediator at McClymonds, where she was a student. So the history began with her.

In the summer of 1997, a friend of hers, James Valery, who was born on the exact same day as her, was murdered. She came to me and asked me to help her write a play about stopping violence and to start a program to support youth. Tragically, she was killed the same year, on Oct. 20, 1997. We started the LoveLife Foundation on Nov. 1, 1997. Our first after-school program was at LoEshe’s school, McClymonds. Shout out to my brother Will Hammons for helping me start the LoveLife Foundation and run the after-school program.

Originally, we trained youth in radio and television programming. We gave them airtime on KPOO and KPFA, as well as KTOP and KMTP television. We produced public service announcements that have received awards from the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame, Bay Area Cable Ace, the United States Congress and the Red Cross.

These programs gave young people platforms to present their brilliance through the media. As the years passed, we expanded the curriculum in our after-school program to include financial literacy, career development, connecting youth with vocational training, conflict resolution, mediation, monitoring their mental health, time management and our summer college prep program. When youth successfully complete our College Summer Prep program, we provide them with scholarships to four-year colleges. We are currently raising money for scholarships for the 12 students who successfully completed our summer program. Depending on how much we are able to raise, we give them a minimum $6,000 scholarship. If we are able to raise even more money, we give them a scholarship of $12,500.

JR Valrey: Can you tell the readers about some of this year’s students who have succeeded in the College Summer Prep program?

Donald Lacy: This year, we had one of the greatest classes of students in our 29-year history. Our students continue to inspire us with their dedication and achievements. For example, De’Arra volunteers at the Food Bank and interns at Highland Hospital. Irshad interned in the law office of attorney Adante Pointer. He wants to become a lawyer because his father has been incarcerated for years. Da’Mya, during her high school years, worked three jobs to help take care of her mother, who has been battling cancer for several years.

David has made history as the youngest employee ever hired by NVIDIA. This remarkable young man wakes up at 5 a.m., five days a week, to catch the 6 a.m. BART train from West Oakland and makes his way to his job, where he helps build robots at NVIDIA. His talent and work ethic have been so impressive that NVIDIA’s founder personally took him to Taiwan to meet with the company’s Board of Directors and Executive Leadership. Luan is Oakland’s nominated Poet Laureate and volunteered in Mayor Barbara Lee’s office. The GPAs of our students in 2026 range from 3.2 to 4.3.

JR Valrey: How many of your students got accepted into colleges or universities? Which colleges or universities are they attending?

Donald Lacy: This year, all 12 of the students who participated in this year’s program are going to four-year colleges. They will be attending Stanford, UCLA, Cal Berkeley, UC San Diego, San Jose State, UNLV, Southern University, UC Davis, Sacramento State and Parsons College in Paris. Two students are attending Cal Berkeley, and two students are attending San Jose State. A lot of these outstanding youth have overcome circumstances that make their journey even more remarkable.

JR Valrey: What is the importance of Black youth having the opportunity to attend college or a university? What does it do for the student? What does it do for the community?

Donald Lacy: Great question, JR. For a lot of these youth, like myself, they are the first person in their family to go to college. It means a lot for their self-esteem and for overall family pride. It gives each student an incredible sense of accomplishment and confidence. The challenge is the high cost of a college education in 2026. It also gives them the opportunity to be out on their own for the first time. They have to manage their time, their bills and their social lives with their college schoolwork. The community benefits tremendously from the success of our scholars.

One of our students, Da’Mya, wants to get into the medical field to help people afflicted with cancer, like her mom. Irshad wants to be an attorney to represent people who are dealing with the unjust legal system. David is working at NVIDIA while in college at Stanford and is learning all about AI and robot technology to bring that knowledge back to West Oakland to share it with the community. Our students in 2026 are very community conscious and relish the idea of coming back to Oakland and sharing what they learn for the betterment of their community.

JR Valrey: What do you hope these students learn from the LoveLife Foundation programs in the long term?

Donald Lacy: I can honestly say that I am so proud of the class of 2026. One of the key components of our program is teaching them what I had the great fortune to learn at San Francisco State. I have a degree in Black Studies, and we taught them eye-opening information that they were very grateful to receive. I had them read and write about “The Cress Theory of Color Confrontation,” “The Haitian Revolution,” “Who was John Henrik Clarke and why was he so important?” and “Who was John Lewis and how did he contribute to the human rights struggle?” In addition, we had them research Dr. Angela Davis and her contribution to the Black Liberation Movement.

We also taught them about the Black Panther Party and their enormous contributions to the Black community. I am big on knowledge of our history and how it will help them navigate this white male supremacist system. I also shared with them my journey of going through the restorative justice process. They learned a great lesson from my journey to forgive the one man convicted of murdering my 16-year-old daughter.

JR Valrey: How can the Bay Area community and SF Bay View readers help?

Donald Lacy: Thank you again, JR, for always being a big supporter of mine and the LoveLife Foundation. I encourage all your readers to support these brilliant youth of color. This year, we have nine Black youth, two Asians and one Latina student. Two of the youth are first-generation immigrants. We greatly appreciate any support that your readers can give us. All contributions are tax-deductible. You can send us a check or money order made out to: The LoveLife Foundation, 4200 Park Blvd. #638, Oakland, California 94602. Or you can donate electronically at At Risk Youth | Lovelife or via QR code attached on the flyer.

JR Valrey is editor in chief of the San Francisco Bay View and can be reached at JR@sfbayview.com.

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The July 11 Town Hall exposed a pattern community leaders describe as an “economic holocaust of opportunity” in Bayview Hunters Point, Sunnydale and Potrero Hill.

by Kevin B. Williams, Senior Advisor, Bayview Hunters Point Coordinating Council

On July 11, 2026, residents, young people, civic leaders and candidates for the District 10 seats on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors gathered in the Alex Pitcher Community Meeting Room at 1550 Evans Ave. A representative of the Mayor’s Office also attended. They came to hear the findings of the Wage and Contract Disparity Report prepared by the newly organized Bayview Hunters Point Coordinating Council — an organization once led by great community icon Mother Shirley Jones.

The meeting took nearly a year to secure.

The community had to pay approximately $500 to use a public room in its own neighborhood to explain how public agencies have allegedly denied that neighborhood a fair share of public wages, contracts and economic opportunity. Yet after the evidence was presented, those holding political authority offered no meaningful public response. According to the Council, no representative of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission — the agency most directly implicated by the findings — appeared to answer the community’s questions.

That silence spoke loudly.

The numbers testified

The presentation did not rely on rumor, emotion or political slogans. It relied on government wages and contracting data. The report was originally created and presented to the Southeast Community Facilities Commission in September 2025.

Workers residing in ZIP code 94124 — Bayview Hunters Point — received only 4.5 cents of every project wage dollar. Workers in 94134 — Sunnydale and Visitacion Valley — received only 3.6 cents. Together, the two southeast communities closest to the environmental burden received merely 8.1 cents of every wage dollar.

Workers living outside San Francisco received approximately $30.3 million, representing 23.1 cents of every project wage dollar.

The contract data presents the same pattern. Average reported Local Business Enterprise (LBE) participation in District 10 was approximately $132,000, while reported awards exceeded $25 million in ZIP code 94110, exceeded $40 million in 94111, and totaled more than $200 million for firms located outside San Francisco.

These figures describe more than inequality. They document economic extraction.

The sewage treatment plant is in Bayview.

The burden is in Bayview.

The history of pollution is in Bayview.

But the wages, contracts and wealth leave Bayview.

Community leaders therefore describe what is occurring as an economic holocaust of opportunity: not a comparison to the singular historical horror of genocide, but an urgent description of the sustained destruction of Black economic life through unemployment, displacement, contracting exclusion and the export of public wealth.

A city that protects property but not Black opportunity

San Francisco has demonstrated how quickly it can act when valuable merchandise is stolen from Union Square.

When groups of young people smashed windows and carried expensive goods from downtown stores, the City increased police presence, devoted additional public resources to security and publicly declared that commercial theft threatened San Francisco’s economic vitality.

But when economically dominant prime contractors receive billions of dollars in construction opportunities from projects located in the heart of a historically Black community, where is the comparable emergency response?

Where are the compliance officers who by law should be policing the contracts that go exclusively to white male contractors?

Where are the investigators?

Where are the audits?

Where are the sanctions?

Where are the public hearings?

Where is the outrage?

A broken window in Union Square produces immediate action. Billions of dollars passing through District 10 while Black workers and contractors receive crumbs produces another report.

That contrast reveals whose property City Hall protects — and whose economic future it is prepared to sacrifice.

The long history of government silence

This is not a new problem, and the City cannot credibly claim ignorance. San Francisco’s earlier disparity studies and The Unfinished Agenda documented discrimination against minority- and women-owned businesses decades ago.

The Human Rights Commission grew from civil-rights organizing in San Francisco’s Black community. It once maintained a substantial contract-compliance operation, including field personnel who visited construction sites, examined certified payroll records, investigated false-front contractors and determined whether minority businesses were performing commercially useful functions.

Community leaders now contend that this enforcement system was systematically dismantled.

The Town Hall speech described a former compliance operation with more than 50 officers and related personnel. It contrasted that historic field capacity with a present system that community advocates say has only a handful of civil-rights workers and little meaningful power to investigate, stop payments, impose penalties or sanction discriminatory prime contractors.

Technical assistance is not enforcement.

Mentoring is not monitoring.

A 12-week class is not an investigation.

A newsletter is not a sanction.

Without independent government oversight, a dominant prime contractor may exercise near-total control over a small Black contractor’s schedule, work assignments, payments, change orders and future capacity. Government cannot place a Black business entirely at the economic mercy of a powerful prime contractor and honestly call that equal opportunity.

A personal history of Jim Crow

For me, this struggle is inseparable from my family’s history.

My late father, George Williams (George Court next to Adam Rogers Park in Hunters Point at Ingalls Avenue is named for him) was a highly decorated wartime veteran who served as a technical sergeant, cannon-gun leader and expert marksman. He left Louisiana with his family as part of the great Black migration westward in search of dignity, work and a better life.

He told me that Black soldiers were not permitted to eat in the same military mess facilities as white soldiers, even while German prisoners of war were allowed to do so. After arriving in Vallejo, he lived in the dilapidated, rat-infested Floyd Terrace Navy barracks housing project and obtained work as a laborer. He was later fired after an employer learned that he had been jailed in the military stockade for a uniform violation involving a missing button during wartime!

His experience teaches us that military service, hard work and personal sacrifice have never guaranteed Black Americans equal treatment.

Jim Crow was not confined to Alabama, Mississippi or Louisiana. Its logic migrated right here to San Francisco where Black people were not allowed to sit at a lunch counter at Woolworth’s Department Store. This appears wherever institutions control access to work, housing, capital and dignity according to race.

In modern San Francisco, Jim Crow may not be written above a drinking fountain. It may be hidden inside a procurement system, a bonding requirement, a slow-payment practice, an un-monitored subcontract or an annual report that combines categories until racial exclusion, particularly of Black people, disappears from plain view.

Freedom among ourselves — or systemic freedom?

Only weeks before the Town Hall, San Francisco celebrated Juneteenth.

There was music, food, fellowship and celebration. But while watching those festivities, I was compelled to ask:

Do these wage and contract numbers demonstrate that we are systemically free — or merely free among ourselves?

We may gather and celebrate together, but who owns the companies receiving the public contracts?

Who receives the change orders?

Who owns the equipment?

Who accumulates the bonding history?

Whose children inherit the business?

Freedom without economic opportunity is a celebration without an inheritance.

Freedom without ownership allows Black people to perform the labor while others continue to own the harvest.

The cost of silence

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. warned that history would remember not only the hostility of those who opposed justice, but the silence of those who knew better and failed to speak.

The political silence at the July 11 Town Hall must therefore concern every San Franciscan.

The Coordinating Council first presented the disparity findings on Sept. 24, 2025. Southeast Community Facilities Commissioners expressed concern and discussed a joint public forum with the Public Utilities Commission. Months passed. Contracts continued. Payrolls continued. The money continued moving. The Council followed up for approximately nine months without interest or a response to its so-called public pronouncement of support and ultimately was forced to pay to hold the meeting itself subject to cancellation of the Town Hall Meeting.

Nearly a year later, a Town Hall after the contracts have been awarded is not accountability.

It represents an economic burning cross of contempt for the entire Black Community. So they seek to hide failure by putting a Black face on it while the evil of segregated servitude lurks within, disclosing nothing more than the illusion of inclusion.

The patience of the Black community, a naturally loving community with a long tradition of racial tolerance and civic participation — has been treated as permission to delay promises of equity repeatedly, without sufficient monitoring, enforcement or measurable results.

I ask, as Dr. King once did: Can a lie last forever?

The wage data is speaking.

The contract data is speaking.

The declining Black population of San Francisco is speaking.

The only remaining question is whether the good people entrusted with public authority and real community advocacy will continue to remain silent.

What San Francisco must answer

District 10 residents deserve public answers to basic questions:

• How many City employees physically inspect construction sites for racial discrimination?

• How many false-front investigations were opened during the last fiscal year?

• How many commercially useful function reviews were conducted?

• How many prime contractors were sanctioned?

• How many payments were withheld?

• How many contractors were suspended or debarred?

• How much money went to Black-owned businesses as prime contractors?

• How much went to Black workers residing in the communities carrying the environmental burden?

If the City is proud of its contracting system, it should publish the racial data.

If the contractors are complying, the City should audit them.

If the law means something, the City should enforce it.

This is not a request for pity. It is a demand for democratic accountability.

The plant is here.

The burden is here.

Our families are here.

Our contractors are here.

The public money belongs to all of us.

And the truth should not require permission.

A localized system of economic apartheid

When I look at these numbers, I am reminded that oppression changes its appearance from one generation to the next.

It no longer needs signs that read “Whites Only.”

It no longer needs separate drinking fountains.

It no longer needs poll taxes or literacy tests.

Modern systems of exclusion often operate through access to capital, access to contracts, access to financing, access to bonding, access to decision-making, and ultimately access to wealth.

Throughout history, colonial powers extracted wealth from nations while leaving the people who lived there with little control over the resources beneath their own feet. Countries across Africa — including Burkina Faso — have experienced long periods in which enormous natural wealth benefited political and economic elites while many local communities remained excluded from proportional participation in the wealth generated from their own land.

President Ibrahim Traoré has repeatedly argued that genuine sovereignty requires economic self-determination and that nations cannot be truly free if others continue to control the benefits of their resources.

The lesson is broader than any one nation.

Wherever wealth is extracted from a community while opportunity bypasses the people living there, the result is economic dependency rather than economic freedom.

That is why the statistics presented to the white power structure of San Francisco concern me so deeply.

Bayview Hunters Point produces no gold mines.

It produces no oil fields.

But it hosts a huge sewage treatment plant, one of the most significant public infrastructure investments in California history.

Billions of public dollars have flowed through this community with billions more to come.

The environmental burden has remained here.

Yet much of the economic benefit has flowed elsewhere.

The community bears the burden.

Others disproportionately receive the benefit.

That is the pattern the numbers compel us to examine.

This is why many residents describe what has occurred as a form of localized economic apartheid — not because San Francisco has replicated apartheid South Africa in every respect, but because a community that bears extraordinary public burdens continues to experience persistent exclusion from the full economic opportunities generated around it.

The Wage and Contract Disparity Report asks us to confront that question directly.

If workers living in the two most impacted southeast neighborhoods together receive only 8.1 cents of every project wage dollar, while workers outside San Francisco receive 23.1 cents, then the question is no longer whether disparities exist.

The question becomes:

Who benefits?

Who decides?

Who accumulates wealth?

And perhaps most importantly—

Who inherits that wealth?

These questions are not about race alone.

They are about power.

They are about whether public investment creates shared prosperity or concentrates opportunity in the hands of those who already possess economic advantage.

History teaches us that systems of exclusion often endure not only because of prejudice, but because they exploit division.

Communities divided against one another are easier to govern than communities united around shared economic interests.

Black against Brown.

Brown against Asian.

Native-born against immigrant.

Resident against resident.

Contractor against contractor.

Neighborhood against neighborhood.

These divisions weaken collective bargaining power and distract from the larger structural question: Who controls the public wealth?

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. reminded us that “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.”

That principle rejects the politics of division.

Economic justice for Bayview Hunters Point is not only a Black issue.

It is a San Francisco issue.

It is an issue of democracy.

It is an issue of accountability.

It is an issue of whether public money serves the public interest.

Tonight we honor those who came before us not by dividing communities, but by uniting them around a common demand:

Publish the truth.

Monitor the contracts.

Enforce the law.

Protect the public trust.

Because freedom is measured not only by the right to vote or the right to speak.

Freedom is also measured by whether a community has a fair opportunity to build businesses, accumulate wealth, pass opportunity to the next generation, and share proportionately in the prosperity created by the public dollars it helps finance.

Only then can we truly say that the burden — and the opportunity — are shared alikeKevin B. Williams earned his political science degree from San Francisco State University and is best known for his work with the SF Human Rights Commission, where he rose to the position of Acting Executive Director while serving as Chief of Contract Compliance at San Francisco International Airport, managing the largest capital improvement projects in the history of San Francisco. Elder Williams co-founded the Greenlining Institute, was Vice President of the New Bayview Committee and currently serves as Senior Advisor to the Bayview Hunters Point Coordinating Council. He is the eldest son of community matriarch Ruth Williams. He can be reached at williams532001@yahoo.com.

The post The Bay View carries the burden while San Francisco exports the wealth appeared first on San Francisco Bay View.

by Gerald A. Perreira

Oct. 7, 2023

Yahya Sinwar, leader of Hamas in Gaza from 2017 and later chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau following the killing of Ismail Haniyeh. Martyred in Tel al-Sultan, Rafah, on Oct. 16, 2024.

“There are many who talk a great deal about changing the world, but to actually change the world requires sacrifice.” So said Hizbullah Secretary-General Naim Qassem, speaking of the legendary nature of the struggle waged by the Alliance of Palestinian Forces in Gaza.

As I contemplate how the world has changed forever since the launch of the Al Aqsa Flood operation on Oct. 7, 2023, I remember Yahya Sinwar (1962–2024) and Mohammed Deif (1965–2024). I reflect on these two sons of Khan Younis Refugee Camp and their courageous plan to break free of the concentration camp of Gaza, a place they were born to liberate. Their fate was a fate shared by their parents before them. Palestinians have been imprisoned in Gaza since 1948, and as early as 1950, Gaza was already being described by UN officials as a concentration camp. Oct. 7 was not the start of something; it was the culmination of the unbearable oppression and defiance of generations of Palestinians.

Mohammed Deif, commander-in-chief of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, from 2002. Martyred in Khan Younis on July 13, 2024.

Of course, the corporate media, their reactionary talking heads and even some progressive analysts who denounce the genocide in Gaza still demand that we condemn this operation. Imagine being imprisoned and living under a criminal blockade that deliberately ensures that people are constantly in a state of undernourishment, allowing them just enough calories to survive, not thrive. Imagine being subjected to violence, sexual assault, imprisonment without trial, torture and the random murder of civilians in your community on a daily basis, for a lifetime. And every few years, your occupier stages a brutal military invasion such as Operation Cast Lead in 2008, Operation Pillar of Defence in 2012 and Operation Protective Edge in 2014, killing thousands of Palestinian civilians. Just as in the current genocide, these operations targeted children in what Efraim Inbar and Eitan Shamir of the Begin-Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies described as “mowing the grass.”

Imagine being encased in a region and world that seemed to have forgotten your plight. Watching as the Gulf states and other surrounding Arab states actively work with your occupier and are on the verge of normalizing your horror story by signing the ironically named ‘Abraham Accords.’ The name of these accords is an affront to the Prophet Ibrahim and his legacy. When you allow yourself to imagine what it is to be born in Gaza, I don’t think that Operation Al Aqsa Flood can be seen as anything other than what it was: courageous resistance.

I am not even going to delve into what the IDF did on that day, how many of their own citizens they killed or how many fabricated accounts of rape, sexual violence and babies in ovens were circulated. This fictitious narrative has been exposed over and over by reputable sources and is publicly available for anyone who needs to review it.

I am constantly confronted with the question: Do I condemn the Oct. 7 attack? I am a descendant of captured and enslaved Africans. In March this year, 123 of the 193 nations that comprise the UN General Assembly declared that the trafficking of captured Africans and racialized chattel enslavement of Africans was the gravest crime against humanity. Fifty-two countries abstained, 15 countries were absent and only three countries voted against the resolution – the U.S., Israel and Argentina. On Oct. 7, 2023, what immediately came to my mind was Nat Turner. Was he a terrorist for leading the 1831 rebellion in Virginia that targeted slave owners and their families, who were committing crimes against his and his people’s humanity?

Of course, no one is willing to call Nat Turner a terrorist, although at the time he was cast as the devil incarnate. History rightfully records him as a courageous freedom fighter. So too will history record Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Deif, and the Palestinian freedom fighters who dared to break out of their living hell on that fateful day and paraglide into enemy territory.

This is not a war between the Israeli state and Hamas

Let’s dispel this myth once and for all. Six organizations from the heroic ‘Alliance of Palestinian Forces’ participated in the historic Al Aqsa Flood military operation on Oct. 7, 2023. The alliance was formed in Damascus in 1993, originally comprising 10 Palestinian organizations, all of whom rejected the Oslo Accords, viewing them as a betrayal of the Palestinian national cause.

The Al Aqsa Flood operation was conducted by a coalition of six of these 10 organizations:

1) Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a Sunni Muslim organization that split from Ikhwan al-Muslimeen, the Muslim Brotherhood, and is ideologically influenced by the Islamic Revolution in Iran.

2) Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, or PFLP, a Marxist-Leninist organization founded by the late Greek Orthodox Christian Dr. George Habash. The famous Palestinian freedom fighter Leila Khaled is a member of the PFLP.

3) Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, a network of various small Palestinian groups, including the Popular Resistance Committees.

4) Mujahideen Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Mujahideen Movement.

5) Omar Al-Qasim Brigades, also known as the National Resistance Brigades, the military wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a Marxist-Leninist organization founded by Greek Orthodox Christian Nayef Hawatmeh. They adopted the Maoist concept of protracted people’s war.

6) HAMAS, Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya – Islamic Resistance Movement, is the largest group in this alliance and one of the two largest Palestinian political parties. HAMAS emerged out of Ikhwan al-Muslimeen, the Muslim Brotherhood, as a result of disagreements regarding Ikhwan’s approach to the struggle for a free Palestinian homeland. Its leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a quadriplegic who was almost blind following an accident in his teens, was assassinated in his wheelchair by a missile fired from an Israeli helicopter gunship in 2004.

In years to come, Gaza’s resistance will be remembered as a decisive force in hastening the decline of the U.S. Empire, its Western European allies and their grotesque creation, the apartheid state of Israel. History will not portray this as a battle between Hamas and Israel, but as an act of resistance that helped ignite a global intifada against the tyranny of the Collective West. Benjamin Netanyahu himself has repeatedly said, “We are not just fighting to defend Israel; we are fighting to defend Western civilization.”

Gaza is strength

It is no surprise that Gaza became a frontline in this struggle. For centuries, the word Gaza has been associated with strength. In Islamic tradition, the similar-sounding word ghazi refers to a Muslim warrior – especially one victorious in battle – and is often used as a title of honor. The strength, honor and dignity of Gaza’s people have helped to galvanize a global movement. Despite three years of relentless killing, entire families wiped out, while the world and the obsolete UN Security Council looked on, Palestinians are refusing to leave their land. This remarkable courage, in the face of devastation, inspires people everywhere to take a stand. The microcosm that is Gaza is highlighting all that is wrong with the world and just how much of a hoax liberal democracy really is.

As the world awakens, we are witnessing extraordinary rebellion and seismic shifts. For example, prior to Oct. 7, 2023, the majority of U.S. citizens supported the state of Israel. Today, if AIPAC is funding your political campaign, you might as well call it quits. Throughout the Global South, resistance to neo-colonialism and fascism is intensifying. As the walls cave in on the Empire, it is forced to further expose its true nature, thereby further accelerating its inevitable collapse.

The magnificent Axis of Resistance

I do not think describing the Axis of Resistance as magnificent is hyperbole. They are well deserving of this accolade. This Axis is made up of the Tahaluf al-Quwa al-Filastiniyah, Alliance of Palestinian Forces; the Islamic Republic of Iran; Ansar’Allah, Houthis; Hizbullah; and the Iraqi Al-Hashd al-Sha’bi, Popular Mobilization Forces, and is currently defeating the enemy on every front. After three years of a brutal genocidal campaign, the ‘mighty’ IDF is still struggling to take Gaza. Only yesterday, Ansar’Allah captured the Saudi-backed president’s house and were seen praying in the courtyard. Iran has got the U.S. over a barrel, and the Iraqis are dancing in the streets as U.S. troops have finally withdrawn. The question is: Can Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states survive this onslaught?

The Collective West continues with its false narrative that members of the Axis of Resistance are mere proxies of Iran. Meanwhile, the Axis of Resistance is showing the world what an authentic partnership, based on shared values and objectives, looks like. Each member’s contribution is valued and their dignity upheld. It is not about who is calling the shots; it is about each part of this Axis firing its shots with a synergy that can only emanate from righteous struggle and a spirit of defiance.

The West cannot comprehend any of this. Their geopolitical outlook is Machiavellian in purpose and design. When self-interest is your only motive, both individually and collectively, then selfishness and arrogance find their way into your DNA. When you only ever relate to others as a hegemon, those others can only be proxies and vassal states. It is therefore no surprise that the West has no understanding of the magnificent Axis of Resistance they are up against.

Remember the PR disaster for the West and Israel when Hamas publicly released the hostages, and a global audience watched as the captives bid a fond farewell to their captors. This spoke volumes. Even now, as I publish this article, we are witnessing the difference between the way Ansar’Allah treats their prisoners of war and Saudi Arabia and ISIS treat theirs. Every bit as morally bankrupt as the hegemon, the Saudis are actually running over their prisoners and shooting unarmed soldiers.

Every Friday, millions of Yemenis take part in a weekly protest in Sanaa in support of Palestine. Here they display flags of the Axis of Resistance.

The real supporters of terrorism

The real supporters of terrorism are the Collective West and its vassal states. You only have to look back over the last few decades to see how the U.S. and Western Europe created, trained, armed and financed terrorist outfits such as ISIS, Al Qaeda and other heretical, pseudo-Islamic groups to destabilize and/or overthrow revolutionary nationalist regimes in the Arab region and throughout Africa. For decades, they have utilized neo-Nazi organizations and other fascist groups to destabilize and overthrow progressive and revolutionary governments in the Americas. They have supported notorious tyrants such as Suharto, Marcos, Pinochet, Mobutu, Batista and Somoza, to name a few. In fact, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt is reputed to have said, “Somoza may be a son of a bitch, but he is our son of a bitch.”

We are the ones we have been waiting for

At both the micro and macro levels, we tend to think that others operate as we do because the way we operate and navigate this world becomes our frame of reference. The West posits Iran as the main instigator and all other members of the Axis of Resistance as vassals and proxies. In other words, as usual, the West universalizes its customs, methodologies and values.

What makes the Axis of Resistance so steadfast is that its members work together in a way that is antithetical to the Western mindset. For all those who have spent a lifetime resisting tyranny and fighting for their God-given right to self-determination, a global resistance movement, connecting and growing on a daily basis, is something we have been waiting for.

More and more revolutionary organizations across every region of the world are rising to the call, realizing the profundity of the Hopi Elders’ prophecy: “We are the ones we have been waiting for.”

Like members of the Axis of Resistance, we are self-determining and autonomous while, at the same time, part of a global intifada. This global movement transcends race, ethnicity, class and religion. What binds us together is the increasing awareness that humanity is facing an existential crisis at the hands of the Collective West.

In his masterpiece, ‘The Wretched of the Earth’ (1961), Frantz Fanon noted: “Two centuries ago, a former European colony decided to catch up with Europe. It succeeded so well that the United States of America became a monster, in which the taints, the sickness and inhumanity of Europe have grown to appalling dimensions … let us waste no time in sterile litanies and nauseating mimicry. Leave this Europe where they are never done talking of Man, yet murder men everywhere they find them, at the corner of every one of their own streets, in all the corners of the globe. For centuries they have stifled almost the whole of humanity in the name of a so-called spiritual experience. Look at them today, swaying between atomic and spiritual disintegration.”

Fanon’s call to action is as relevant today as it was 65 years ago: “Come then Comrades, it would be as well to decide at once to change our ways. We must shake off the heavy darkness in which we were plunged and leave it behind. The new day, which is already at hand must find us firm, prudent and resolute.”

End imperialism and Zionism in Africa

The recent formation of the Coalition to End Imperialism in Africa, or CEIA, is evidence of how this movement is growing. As Africans, we are no strangers to the North Atlantic Tribes and their murderous rampages. Zionism has, since its inception, been a parasite on the body of Africa. We are therefore duty-bound, in the words of revolutionary Pan-Africanist Kwame Ture, “to oppose and smash Zionism.”

Israel is a settler-colonial state, rooted in an ideology, namely Zionism, that is alien to Judaism and was in fact formulated by European atheists. Those who have migrated to the apartheid state of Israel, claiming that they have a legitimate right to this land, in reality trace their ancestry back to the same North Atlantic Tribes.

One long murderous rampage

History will record that the era of global dominance by the North Atlantic Tribes and their combined armies, NATO, the North Atlantic Tribes Organization, was characterized by one long murderous rampage. Even those who maintain a willful blindness, the dysconscious, the ones who still cling to the idea that there is such a thing as Western civilization, are now struggling to come to terms with their own cognitive dissonance. Having been forced to watch what is now a three-year genocide in Gaza in real time, they are realizing the chilling accuracy of Oscar Wilde’s observation that “the U.S. is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.”

It goes without saying that those of us who have been colonized, enslaved and otherwise impacted by this centuries-old murderous rampage are deeply traumatized across generations; however, the masses who reside in the metropole, the colonizing states, are also becoming increasingly traumatized. The bubble they have existed in is starting to burst. Their misleaders are choking on the blood they have spilled, and yet they crave more. The people of the U.S. and Western Europe are feeling uneasy. If the forces that govern them can stand by and allow the brutal massacre of thousands of women, infants and children, it does not bode well for anyone. No one is safe. The sheer horror of the genocide in Gaza has been a tipping point for humanity. There is no turning back.

The Empire is insolvent and taking its last hideous gasp

Kwame Nkrumah said that “neo-colonialism is not a sign of imperialism’s strength but rather of its last hideous gasp.” The Alliance of Sahel States already expelled the imperialists, and more is to come. The U.S. administration is in panic mode and scrambling. Their power and influence is diminishing faster than they ever thought possible. The U.S. debt now exceeds $40 trillion, representing over 100% of its GDP. It increases at a rate of $5-6 billion per day. The federal government spends 40% more than it takes in, running annual deficits approaching $2 trillion.

And of course, being the ignorant and arrogant bumblers that they are, they are making one blunder after another. Empires always collapse from within. The U.S., like all empires in decline, is suffering an internal crisis of leadership. It is a divided country, which often seems on the brink of civil war. In this climate of panic, fear, racial hostility and the chasm between have and have-nots, the U.S. is in a downward spiral. They are scrambling from crisis to crisis, war to war, with no vision for any kind of sustainable future and a sordid past that has caught up with them.

2023 and 2024 will be recorded in history as the years when the extraordinary Axis of Resistance launched an unprecedented assault on the Empire and its surrogates. From the Sahel to Gaza, and everywhere in between, people are fighting back. During the case South Africa took to the ICJ, charging Israel with genocide, a trial which in the not-too-distant future will be spoken of in the same way as we speak today of the Nuremberg Trials, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories noted that “watching African women and men fighting to save humanity and the international legal system against the ruthless attacks supported/enabled by most of the West will remain one of the defining images of our time. This will make history whatever happens.”

These well-strategized campaigns are exerting tremendous military and moral pressure on the declining Empire. Che Guevara’s proposed scenario, “create two, three, many Vietnams,” has come to pass. If the U.S. makes the fatal mistake of committing ground troops in Iran, they will most certainly have another Vietnam/Afghanistan and certain defeat on their hands once again.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, martyred during U.S.-Israeli airstrikes on Feb. 28, 2026, along with his daughter-in-law, wife of Mojtaba Khamenei; daughter-in-law; son-in-law; and grandchild.

The anniversary of Oct. 7 is a day to honor the thousands of martyrs, known and unknown, and make sure their sacrifice is not in vain. Despite the victories, there are also and always will be twists, turns and setbacks. The enemy we are fighting is not an easy one, and struggle against evil is never-ending and permanent. Iran has taught us some important lessons. One of them is patience. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei authored an entire book titled ‘Patience.’ In that book he asks, what does patience mean? His answer is that “Patience means staying in the arena, not getting out of it. Some individuals flee from the arena. Some individuals do not flee from it, but they leave it gradually. This is against patience. Patience means endurance, staying in the arena and resisting. Patience means keeping our eyes on distant goals and distant horizons.”

What is the hegemon’s endgame?

Let them tell us: What is their endgame? Of course, they cannot, because they are bankrupt, not only financially but also intellectually and spiritually. They are pouring billions, untracked and unaccounted for, into an apartheid state and into Ukraine, one of the most corrupt countries on Earth. Trump is unhinged, as are Rubio and Hegseth, and it seems that the Zionists have a lot of leverage on the very compromised U.S. president. Like Netanyahu, Trump can’t afford to take the off-ramp and seems determined to go down with his ship. As with all those who are experiencing their own demise, the U.S. regime’s behavior is becoming increasingly irrational and out of control. Their endgame, hatched by deluded fools in basements, is far removed from reality. They are blinded by their own hype and arrogance. Incredible though it may seem, a large number of the Empire’s elite still believe that they can emerge from this murderous rampage against women and children in Gaza, brush themselves off and carry on as usual. They are wrong. Their long and painful reign of genocide and tyranny is slowly coming to an end.

2023 will be remembered as the year that sealed their demise. Their barbarism is naked and exposed. They are suicidal. This power elite and the real estate mogul at the helm of the U.S. Empire see the planet and humanity as commodities, objects to be abused, exploited and discarded, all in the name of the false god of profit and the very unfree marketplace. They are drowning in the misfortune of their own making, the consequence of their flawed, one-dimensional ideologies and their inability to comprehend the totality of the human person and our existence. Their failure to ever rise above their barbaric propensities has brought about their own destruction. And all those nation-states that hold onto the tail of this drowning cow will surely drown with it.

Gerald A. Perreira is an educator, liberation theologian and political activist. He lived in the Libyan Jamahiriya for many years, where he lectured at the Green World Ideological Institute and was a founding/executive member of the World Mathaba, based in Tripoli. He currently resides in Guyana and is chairperson of the Guyana-based Organization for the Victory of the People (OVP), https://www.ovpguyana.org/, and a member of the Governing Council of the Global Pan African Movement (Harare). He can be reached at mojadi94@gmail.com

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by JR Valrey

The African American Art and Culture Complex in the Fillmore district has been a beacon of Black art and culture in the city of San Francisco for decades. Currently, each floor of the three-floor building is decorated with visual masterpieces created by San Francisco native Emory Douglas, the Minister of Culture and Revolutionary Artist of the Black Panther Party, for his hosted exhibition.

This place is one of the hearts of Black culture in the Bay, and it is set to temporarily close at the beginning of November for a few years for seismic retrofitting.

Following in a line of extremely talented, committed and community-driven executive directors, Dr. Murrel Green is the new executive director of the African American Art and Culture Complex, leading this transitional period. Although the beloved building will not be in service, he is assuring that programming will not cease.

Check out what Dr. Green has to say about what’s happening to our building and the programming that the community has long depended on.

JR Valrey: Can you tell us how it feels to be the new executive director for the African American Art and Culture Complex, which has a prestigious history spanning many decades?

Dr. Green: It feels absolutely phenomenal for so many different reasons. First and foremost, to be back home in the neighborhood and community that raised me is something that not everyone gets the opportunity to experience, and I feel truly blessed to have that opportunity.

There is also a very personal history for me with the African American Art and Culture Complex. I worked here 25 years ago under then-Executive Director London Breed, and the Complex became an extension of my family. To now return as executive director and follow in the footsteps of people like Mohammad Bilal and Co-Executive Directors Melonie and Melorra Green is incredibly meaningful to me. When I think about the staff from those days, people like Errol, Victor, Tonya and so many others who poured themselves into this institution, I understand the legacy that I have been entrusted to help carry forward.

There is something special about being able to walk into this building every day and absorb the culture, the history, the energy and the spirit of the space. This is more than a job for me. It feels like coming home, and I am grateful for the opportunity to serve a place and a community that have meant so much to me for so many years.

JR Valrey: What is going on in the month of October at the AAACC?

Dr. Green: October is going to be an incredibly active month at the African American Art and Culture Complex. I would start with our artist installations. We have the extraordinary work of Emory Douglas displayed throughout the building, from the first through the third floors. If you have not had an opportunity to experience that exhibition, it is beyond amazing.

We are also featuring the work of Gustavo Castillo, who is simply a genius in his craft. What he is able to create through his work is phenomenal. Then we have a young artist, Isaiah “Zay” Williams, whose exhibition, “Zay’s Notebook,” demonstrates a formidable ability to tell the story of his life, experiences and perspective through art. I am particularly excited that we are able to have multiple generations and artistic voices represented throughout the Complex.

Beyond the exhibitions, we have several community events happening throughout the month. Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., Gamma Chi Lambda Chapter will be hosting a voter registration event, and our Community Days will continue to bring people into the building for programming and engagement. One of my favorite people, neighborhood native and boxing champion Karim Mayfield, will also be putting on an event here at the Complex.

And, of course, October means spooky season. Our senior program coordinator, Ashley “Smiley,” is developing what I would describe as a Halloween extravaganza, with programming for young people as well as an adult-centered celebration that is going to be very difficult to miss.

Although you asked specifically about October, I also want people to know that our indoor programming will continue through Nov. 7 as we prepare for the temporary relocation. We plan to go out strong. We will host our Legacy & Vision reception, celebrating the people who helped build the history of the AAACC while also looking toward its future. We are bringing back our “A Different World” activation, using the excitement around the series to engage students around college and career preparation in a way that is both educational and culturally relevant. We will also bring back our one-day robotics camp for young people.

And Nov. 7 does not mean the work stops. We are planning outdoor community activities after we leave the building, including turkey giveaways and other events during November and December.

So this is not a quiet period for the AAACC. We are filling the building with art, culture, community, education, celebration and history, and then carrying that same energy with us as we move into this next chapter.

JR Valrey: Why will the AAACC be closing down? How long will it be closed?*

Dr. Green: I think the first thing that is important to clarify is that the African American Art & Culture Complex is not closing down, and Oct. 31 is not the end of our programming. Our last day of indoor programming at 762 Fulton St. will be Nov. 7. After that, we will temporarily relocate while our historic home undergoes a much-needed seismic retrofit. We anticipate the work taking approximately a year and a half.

That distinction is extremely important because the AAACC is much more than a building. We fully intend to continue our programming, grow our presence and remain actively engaged with the community throughout the retrofit period. Even after our indoor programming concludes, we anticipate outdoor events and community activities during November and December as we transition into our temporary locations.

The need for the seismic work is very real. The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake demonstrated the vulnerability of buildings throughout San Francisco and the Bay Area, and this retrofit is intended to provide the structural improvements necessary for the long-term safety and future of 762 Fulton St.

I actually think there is a larger metaphor in that. A building needs a strong foundation in order to stand, grow and thrive, and I believe the same thing is true of our AAACC community. This retrofit is about strengthening the foundation of this historic institution so that it can continue serving generations of San Franciscans well into the future.

Most importantly, this work is necessary for the safety and security of our artists, staff, tenants, program participants, visitors and community. So while 762 Fulton will be undergoing an important transformation, the work of the AAACC will continue. We are not going anywhere.

JR Valrey: What will happen to the programs that are currently housed at the AAACC?

Dr. Green: That is an interesting question because, as the new executive director, I think this is also an important time for me to work with our team to assess the programs we currently offer and determine how we can make them even stronger.

One of the responsibilities I was asked to take on when I came into this position was to examine how the AAACC has survived over the years. I have actually begun changing that language. I am less interested in how we survive and much more interested in how we thrive.

That means taking an intentional look at our programming: What is working? What is not working? What can we do better? What should we increase? Are there things we should decrease or rethink?

We have to ask those questions if we want the AAACC to remain a sustainable institution and a strong, reliable resource for our community for generations to come.

I also see our temporary relocation as an opportunity to expand rather than contract. While we are outside of our building, we have an opportunity to cultivate new relationships, take our programming into other spaces and bring our talents and resources directly into communities that can benefit from them.

I believe there is a lot in a name. We are the African American Art & Culture Complex. To me, that carries a responsibility that extends beyond the walls of 762 Fulton St. The Fillmore-Western Addition will always be our home and our base, but there is no reason our impact has to stop there.

I want us to explore opportunities in other parts of San Francisco where there is an interest in African American art and culture, throughout the Bay Area, across California, nationally and eventually through international collaborations.

We are already beginning conversations about potential collaborations in Harlem, New York, and I am also exploring ways that we might build relationships with the National Museum of Liberia. Those kinds of partnerships excite me because culture is not supposed to exist in isolation. If we truly believe in community, then we should be looking for opportunities to support one another, share resources, exchange ideas and build together.

So our core presence will remain rooted in the Fillmore, but my vision is for the AAACC to use this period to strengthen what we already do while expanding our reach. We want to collaborate with people and institutions that share an interest in advancing African American art and culture and make the AAACC’s impact even broader than it is today.

JR Valrey: How can people keep up with the developments at the AAACC?

Dr. Green: Great question. We have several resources that I encourage anyone who is interested in the AAACC to stay connected to.

First, there is our website, which we will continue updating with developments, programs, events, relocation information and ways to find us while we are outside of 762 Fulton St. We also have our newsletter, which gives us another opportunity to communicate directly with our community. And, as you are asking me this question, you are reminding me that I need to update my Executive Director’s message for the next edition!

Social media will also become increasingly important for us. We have Facebook, we are going to become much more active on Instagram, and we have been discussing developing our presence on YouTube as well. I am even willing to venture onto TikTok. It is definitely not my forte, but if doing a TikTok dance or two helps introduce another generation to the AAACC and gets them interested in African American art and culture, I may have to take one for the team.

But communication cannot only happen through technology. We are also committed to maintaining strong relationships with important community media institutions like the SF Bay View newspaper and others that have historically helped tell the stories of our community.

And then there is something that I still believe is incredibly powerful: word of mouth. As we move throughout the city during this seismic retrofit period and partner with other organizations and communities, I believe more people are going to encounter the AAACC in places where they may not have encountered us before.

I was born and raised in San Francisco and in the Fillmore-Western Addition. This is home for me. Organizations that may sometimes have been viewed as competing organizations are, from my perspective, extensions of our family. I intend to work with them, not around them. The same is true of our faith-based organizations, which have historically played such a pivotal role in supporting and sustaining San Francisco’s African American community.

So whether it is through our website, newsletter, social media, community media, churches, partner organizations or simply people telling other people about the work, we are going to make sure the community knows what the AAACC is doing.

You will not have to wonder where we are or whether we are still working. We will be out there, we will be visible, and we will make sure people know that the AAACC is still here.

JR Valrey is a veteran journalist and Editor in Chief at the San Francisco Bay View. He can be reached at JR@sfbayview.com

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Fillmore boxing legend and former Nabo Jr. Welterweight and WBU Welterweight America’s title/belt holder Karim “Hard Hitta” Mayfield and his brother, rapper Ronski, are putting together “Frisco Fight Night” on Saturday, Oct. 17, at the African American Art and Culture Complex in San Francisco.

At all of Karim’s boxing events in the past, his team has featured a wide array of exciting talent from all ethnicities, ages and genders in the boxing ring. His events have the local flavor, ism and sauce, mixed with the professionalism of a national event.

I talked with the champ, Karim “Hard Hitta” Mayfield, about the upcoming “Frisco Fight Night,” his free weekly youth program SoulChamp and his career.

Frisco Fight Night will be one of the last big events held at the African American Art and Culture Complex before it closes on Oct. 31 for a three-year retrofitting project.

JR Valrey: Can you talk about the upcoming Frisco Fight Night? What is it? Where? When?

Hard Hitta: Frisco Fight Night is a community boxing event for weekend warriors and regular people — not professional boxers — to compete in organized matchups. It will take place on Oct. 17 at the African American Art & Culture Complex, located at 762 Fulton St. in San Francisco. It’s about bringing boxing, entertainment and the community together.

JR Valrey: How will this Frisco Fight Night be different from the other two boxing events that you’ve organized?

Hard Hitta: One of the biggest differences is that my brother Ronski and I are coming together to put this event on. It will feature fighters from throughout the Bay Area, instead of being centered mainly on local San Francisco fighters. We’ll have special guests stepping into the ring, and the event will be streamed live, so people can watch from anywhere.

JR Valrey: As a retired professional boxer, what makes a great amateur boxer?

Hard Hitta: A great amateur boxer is disciplined, coachable and consistent. You need solid fundamentals, conditioning, ring intelligence and the ability to remain composed under pressure. Talent matters, but work ethic and the willingness to listen and learn are what separate a good amateur from a great one.

JR Valrey: What was the biggest fight of your career, in your opinion? Why?

Hard Hitta: The biggest fight of my career was the fight in which I won the title. That victory gave me national exposure, raised my profile and opened the door to bigger fights and better paydays. It changed the direction of my career.

JR Valrey: What local boxer are you excited about? Why?

Hard Hitta: I’m excited about Amari Jones out of Oakland. I believe he has what it takes to become a champion. On the amateur side, I’m excited about my boxer, Moises Moraga. Moises is a San Francisco boxer, born and raised, who is preparing to turn professional in 2027. He started with my youth program five years ago and has also worked at my business, Authentic 415, for those same five years. Watching his development inside and outside the ring has been special.

JR Valrey: Can you talk about your youth boxing program? When and where is it? How much does it cost?

Hard Hitta: SoulChamp is my free youth-development program at the African American Art & Culture Complex, located at 762 Fulton St. We combine boxing and fitness with technology, mental wellness, mentorship, live percussion and important life skills. Our sessions are held on Wednesdays from 5:30 to 7 p.m. The goal is to help young people build discipline, confidence, emotional control and skills they can use beyond boxing.

JR Valrey: What was your regimen as a professional boxer to stay in shape?

Hard Hitta: My regimen was built around consistency. It included conditioning and roadwork, bag and mitt work, sparring, strength training, disciplined nutrition and proper recovery. The most important part was mental discipline — continuing to do the work even on the days when I didn’t feel like doing it.

JR Valrey: How can people get more information about Frisco Fight Night?

Hard Hitta: People can follow me on Instagram at @KarimHardhittamayfield or follow my brother Ronski at @Mobetta_Mochedda for updates about the fighters, tickets and livestream. Anyone interested in fighting can also send either of us a direct message with their height and weight.

JR Valrey is a veteran journalist and Editor in Chief at the San Francisco Bay View. He can be reached at JR@sfbayview.com

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by JR Valrey

The only music group that has been able to break the English-only music barrier of street popularity in the Bay has been the Spanish speaking rap group Los Rakas. These Black Panamanian Oaklanders are just as comfortable performing at the Fifth Annual Afro Latinx Concert, which is Oct. 3 at the Ruth Williams Bayview Opera House, as they were performing at the Black Cultural Zone’s summer concert series, held in Arroyo Park in Deep East Oakland a few months ago.

The chemistry that the duo, made up of Raka Dun and Raka Rich, has making music with gives them tunes with thunderous Bay Area rap music beds, that they rap over in Spanish with a Bay Area cadence, which is why it sounds familiar to non-Spanish speaking local rap fans. Los Rakas has a near cult following, where at festivals in Northern Cali it is common to see nearly half a dozen people passing by, sporting their logo of the Raka face on t-shirts and hats. During a trip to Medellin, Colombia, that I took in early 2024, I had some non-Black hip hop heads lose their minds when I told them I was from the Bay Area, and they asked if I knew Los Rakas, and I replied “personally.”

The group is an international phenomenon, and with the rise of international Black musics like Amapiano, Afrobeat and Soca – the Bay needs to give this groundbreaking group its flowers at home, or another hood around the world will recognize their musical genius before we do.

I did this Q&A with Raka Dun, exclusively for the SF Bay View newspaper.

JR Valrey: What does Los Rakas mean?

Raka Dun: The name “Raka” originates from the Panamanian slang term “Rakataka,” which is often used derogatorily to describe someone from the ghetto. We chose this name for our group to assert that being from the hood does not define our character or potential. Our goal was to create a movement that reflects pride in our roots, and thankfully, we’ve succeeded.

JR Valrey: What has your experience been like being a Panamanian rap group from Oakland? What does it mean to embody both cultures?

Raka Dun: It’s an honor to represent both Panama and Oakland. Both places have significantly influenced global culture, and being recognized and embraced by these cities carries immense weight. Our backgrounds contribute to our unique sound and resilience, setting us apart in the music industry.

JR Valrey: I went to Colombia and found out that y’all are huge there. Why is it important for you to cater to an international audience?

Raka Dun: Since our teenage years, we have dreamt big and never wanted our music to be confined to just one city or country. We are grateful for the opportunity to travel and share our Bay Area culture globally, connecting with fans everywhere.

JR Valrey: What two countries, other than the U.S., do you enjoy performing in the most?**

Raka Dun: Mexico and Colombia stand out for us; the fans there are incredibly passionate and express their love openly.

JR Valrey: How would you describe your music?

Raka Dun: Our music is simply different.

JR Valrey: What do you have out now?

Raka Dun: We recently released two music videos filmed in Panama: “En la Esquina” and “Deja la envidia Pelao,” featuring a dope upcoming artist Don Pablo Mures. The message is: Say no to hate, focus on your journey, and never envy others. Make sure to check out both videos on our YouTube channel!

JR Valrey: You have a performance coming up at the Opera House on Oct. 3 for the Afro-Latinx show. What can people expect?

Raka Dun: Expect a lively and fun experience! We love to rock for the people, and it’s always a Raka party when we hit the stage. Pull up on us; it’s gonna be a vibe!

JR Valrey: How can people stay in touch with you?

Raka Dun: Visit our website at SoyRaka.com to stay updated and check out our merchandise. As an independent movement, we appreciate all the support from our fans — shout out to all the Rakas out there!

SF Bay View Editor-in-Chief JR Valrey is a veteran journalist. His work can also be heard on www.blockreportradioworld.com. He can be reached at jr@sfbayview.com.

The post The Makers of Spanish Speaking Bay Area Slap: Los Raka appeared first on San Francisco Bay View.