March 09, 2017 

LAWT News Service 

Over 50 years after the 1965 Watts Rebellion and as Los Angeles approaches the 25th anniversary of the Los Angeles Civil Unrest, interactions are still strained relations between law enforcement and local communities that precipitated these events.

On Saturday, February 25, the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations held a public hearing on policing and human relations in South Los Angeles for residents of the 2nd Supervisorial District as part of a countywide Policing and Human Relations Project.  The hearing was held at the Watts Labor Community Action Committee and afforded the community to share their real life experiences involving law enforcement in L.A. County.

For three hours members of the Commission listened intently as various organizations and residents of all ages offered testimony and suggestions on how to improve relations with law enforcement. The panel included Isabelle Gunning, President of the L.A. County Commission on Human Relations, Dr. Melina Abdullah ,Vice-President of the Commission and Chair of its Ad-Hoc Committee on Policing and Human Relations, Cynthia Anderson-Barker, civil rights and criminal defense attorney, Jarrett T. Barrios, American Red Cross Los Angeles Chief Executive Officer, Ashlee Oh,  Homeless Initiative for the County of Los Angeles Consultant, Preeti P. Kulkarni, Chief Financial Officer for the Women’s Foundation of California, Guada­lupe Montaño, Cal State University Dominguez Hills Professor, and Robin Toma, Executive Director of the Commission.

“For our commission, this was a critically important opportunity to hear from the Watts and other South LA communities because it was in these communities more than 50 years ago where a crisis in police-community relations erupted in widespread violence,” said Isabelle Gunning, President of the L.A. County Commission on Human Relations. “With these hearings, we hope community members will come forward to speak on the issues that we need to address today if we are to have strong trust in police-community relations.”

“We have also heard about the recent reports of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who have identified themselves as “police” when contacting L.A. residents at their home,” said Robin Toma, Executive Director of the Commission. “This too has caused confusion and distrust among residents and those police departments, which have policies of not inquiring about the immigration status of victims or witnesses, nor enforcing immigration laws, in order to have the trust of the immigrant community.”

Angela James, visiting Professor of Pan-African Studies at Cal State University, Los Angeles, argued that the community needs to pay more attention to issues around policing in schools as an extension of policing young people.

“Random searches inside of schools plus an increased presence of LAPD officers on buses and trains promote a real academic impact of fear that those kinds of interactions produce,” contended Professor James.

Among those who came out to offer testimony included civil rights attorney Luis Carrillo who spoke about his clients involved in an incident in Anaheim where an off‑duty LAPD officer discharged his weapon after getting into an altercation with teenagers who had walked on his lawn.

“We’re concerned that over the years the chief of police promises reforms but never delivers with the reforms because the officers continue to abuse the community,” Carrillo told the Commission. “African-American and Latino communities are always at the bad end of justice—there is no justice. We applaud you for the work that you’re doing because it has to be done.”

In offering special testimonies on high profile cases involving law enforcement, Carrillo was joined by family members of Wakiesha Wilson, a 36-year-old African-American woman who was found last Easter hanging in a cell at the Los Angeles Metropolitain Detention Center, Mitrice Richardson, a 24-year-old woman who was found dead 11‑months after she was released in the middle of night from the Malibu/Lost Hills Sherrif’s station and Keith Bursey, a 31-year-old African-American man who was killed in 2016 by Los Angeles police.

Community groups in attendance included Black Lives Matter Los Angeles, Youth Justice Coalition and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network.

Saturday’s hearing was the fourth in a series of hearings taking place throughout Los Angeles County. A final hearing is planned in order to hear from law enforcement representatives and subject matter experts. In addition to the hearings, the Commission is obtaining information about best practices and recommendations for fair policing from many sources. The results of these hearings and additional information will be combined in a report that can be used by community partners to strengthen local public safety systems.

“Los Angeles County is a huge area,” said Dr. Melina Abdullah, Vice-President of the Commission and Chair of its Ad-Hoc Committee on Policing and Human Relations.  “When you talk about law enforcement agencies there are over 50 agencies in Los Angeles County.  Aside from the LAPD and the Sheriff’s Department you have dozens of municipal police agencies including Inglewood, Culver City and Hawthorne.  It is critically important that the public come out and tell us about their experiences so that the Commission and the County can have an accurate representation of how the community really feels about police-community relations.”  

The next hearing will take place in Reseda on Sunday, March 26, 2017.  For more information please visit wdacs.lacounty.gov or call (213) 738-2788.

February 23, 2017 

By Charlene Crowell 

NNPA Newswire Columnist 

As 2017’s Black History observances unfold in communities across the country, new research on racial wealth gaps refutes the age-old advice for people of color to pull themselves up by their proverbial bootstraps. According to researchers at Demos and the Institute for Assets & Social Policy at Brandeis University, historical and systemic privileges afforded Whites and denied to Blacks are the true root causes.

“The Asset Value of Whiteness: Understanding the Racial Wealth Gap,” analyzed data from the 2013 Survey of Consumer Finances. After examining individual differences by race in consumer spending habits, education, family structure, and employment, the report concluded that these factors are not “sufficient enough to erase a century of accumulated wealth.” 

“For centuries, White households enjoyed wealth-building opportunities that were systematically denied to people of color,” said Any Traub, report co-author and Associate Director of Policy and Research at Demos. “When research shows that racial privilege now outweighs a fundamental key to economic mobility, like higher education, we must demand our policymakers acknowledge this problem and create policies that address structural inequity.”

The significance of these new findings must not be lost during the month set aside to observe Black History. As observances honor those whose sacrifices and dedication led to notable achievements, February should also be a time to rededicate ourselves to the battles not yet won.

Public policies of the past systemically advantaged Whites and allowed their families to create intergenerational wealth that now serves as a financial springboard for future generations. New public policy reforms must be enacted to correct and replace the harms Blacks have faced as a result of our financial exclusion.

For example, a college education is often cited as an essential gateway to higher incomes and America’s middle class. Yet Blacks frequently pay the cost of higher education with a greater student loan indebtedness than their White counterparts. 

“With less student loan debt to pay off over their working years, the typical White college graduate has a head start on building wealth compared to their Black peers,” states the report.

Independent findings from the Center for Responsible Lending support the new report. Today more than half of Black families with a college student borrow to pay for college. Further, on average Black college graduates owe $7,400 more on student loans than their White classmates.

When it comes to wages and employment, in 2012, the median full-time wage earned by Blacks was $621 per week compared while the median wage for Whites was $792 each week, the equivalent financial loss of $8,892 per year. When gender was added, Black women fared even worse and earned only 68 percent – or $28,005 of the $41,184 made by similar White males.

With smaller paychecks and fewer discretionary dollars in household budgets, it is little wonder that the report also found that the median White single parent has 2.2 times more wealth than the median Black two-parent household, and 1.9 times more wealth than the median Latino two-parent household. 

The only area where the new report found consistently higher Black consumer spending was for utility costs: electricity, heating fuel, water and sewer charges. The report cited risk-based pricing that often connects mandatory deposits or low credit scores for these services.

It is equally true, however, that older and less-insulated housing is also a relevant factor in driving up the price of utility services. In another professional post, as a local government official, I witnessed first-hand how winter utility bills force difficult challenges for many people of low to moderate incomes.

In cold-weather climates, winter heating bills can often be higher than the cost of housing itself.  If utility providers are regulated by a moratorium on cutoffs for failure to pay winter utility bills, spring shut-off notices are as predictable as flowers in bloom. During cold weather months, delinquent utility accounts can run several hundred if not thousands of dollars in arrears. In warm-weather climates, the surge in utility costs are usually associated with spring and summer temperatures, but with the same financial burden.

“We can only create a more equitable future by confronting the racial wealth gap and the public policies that continue to fuel and exacerbate it,” concludes the report.

In other words, targeted public policy reforms are the key to closing the nation’s wealth gap. These changes will require the same focus, vigilance and endurance of our historical efforts that forged laws addressing fair housing, voting rights, and equal employment opportunities.

“Equal achievements in key economic indicators, such as employment and education, do not lead to equal levels of wealth and financial security for households of color,” said Tom Shapiro, report co-author and Director of Brandeis University’s Institute on Assets and Social Policy. “White households have a leg up, while households of color face systematic barriers to growing wealth, reproducing our long-standing racial wealth gap over generations.”  

We should all join together to dismantle the lingering legacy of economic exclusion, and create a more financially inclusive future. When we do, in future years, new Black history chapters will note how we provided better opportunities for all of America’s children.

It’s past time for our ‘fair share’ of America’s wealth.

Charlene Crowell is the communications deputy director with the Center for Responsible Lending. She can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

February 09, 2017 

By Brittany K. Jackson 

Contributing Writer 

If you’re an aspiring actor, artist, writer or filmmaker, you’d likely want to understand how to maximize and manage your dollars while living the life of a creative. Fortunately, OneUnited Bank and the African American Film Critics Association (AAFCA) have stepped in to bridge the gap, advocating financial literacy for Black industry professionals.

Recently, the Black-owned and operated bank and premiere film association for Black Hollywood conducted its 3rd Annual “Money on My Mind: The Film & TV Industry” event, featuring a dynamic panel of LA’s top industry executives and creators working behind the scenes. 

Panelists included Malik Ducard, YouTube and Google executive, E. Brian Dobbins, Executive Producer for ABC’s hit television series “Black-ish”, Angela Northington, Senior Vice President of Content Acquisitions at RLJ Entertainment, Anthony Paul, Morgan Stanley executive and Jeff Byrd, Filmmaker and President of the African American Steering Committee at Directors Guild of America. The in-depth panel discussion was moderated by Teri Williams, OneUnited Bank’s President and COO, and Gil Robertson, AAFCA’s President. 

Often time, many creative professionals become so engulfed in pursuing one aspect of their career goals, that they miss out on countless opportunities to work behind the scenes and expand their business knowledge. Northington, who’s integral content producing for urban markets, says it’s important to “look at those myriad of departments and sub industries” that promote upward mobility in multiple areas, such as in the creation and distribution of content.

In terms of technology, many creatives have found “overnight” success as YouTube sensations and social media stars, pulling in massive viewership for original content. According to Gil Robertson, “technology has expanded the opportunities that filmmakers and other creatives can utilize in order to find distribution and audiences for their projects.” Robertson added that it’s really a matter of “learning how to think outside the box” and “taking advantage of the technology that’s available”.

As a talent manager, however, E. Brian Dobbins has a much different spectrum, noting that the number of social media followers or YouTube subscribers doesn’t automatically equate to success in the film industry. “The people who really make it are the people who have a true talent and actually work at it over and over and are dedicated to the craft and not the fame and money,” Dobbins said. 

While hard work and dedication is essential to skill building, many Black artists still struggle financially, particularly budding entrepreneurs.  Luckily, the Sentinel ran in to celebrity investor DonRay Von, who dropped some serious wealth knowledge in an exclusive interview. Von says that anyone seeking an investor must first understand what they’re asking for before the pitch, adding that most investors look for the askers’ documentation and experience level. “You need documentation on the business, strategy and target market, but then you also need a team,” Von said.

When asked about the keys to raising capital as a new business owner, Von says it’s all about “proof of concept”. “If you want to ask someone to do a project, let’s say the project is a million dollars, then a good way to start to get a million dollars is to do a project that costs $100,000,” he said. “If you can succeed at something small, chances are with better resources and a better team you could succeed at something big,” he added.

Von says that he attended the event because he supports black empowerment. “I support us getting access to larger pieces of the pie and I want to spread the knowledge I have from investing and sitting next to very high net worth people and billionaires and understanding how they do things, and I want to bring those kind of things to my community,” he declared.

The panelists were also asked to provide tips on money and savings, reflecting on advice they would have told themselves at 25-years old. For Jeff Byrd, who gained his acclaim through the music-video industry, he says he would “probably say pay your taxes”. The filmmaker says that he was so accustomed to he and his friends doing 1099s at the time, that it made it difficult for him to understand the importance of paying taxes to remain clear of unforeseen financial loss.

Morgan Stanley tycoon Anthony Paul he would tell himself not to spend money foolishly. “I could have bought Nike stock instead of spending on fashion and trends,” he said. For Malik Ducard, he says he would have kept his eye on his credit rating, noting the considerable amount of time it takes to dig out of debt after opening lines of credit and taking out loans.

In an overarching theme of valuing the “Black dollar”, Robertson says the political climate should be a trigger for the Black community to get on the ball.  “It’s time for us to really focus on recycling Black dollars and banking Black. The African American Film Critics Association is committed to supporting the Bank Black initiative at One United Bank and spreading it to our followers and the people we interact with professionally,” Robertson added. 

Teri Williams, who’s led OneUnited Bank in acquiring assets in excess of 650 million dollars, continues the #BankBlack­Initiative and #BankBlackChal­lenge as a means to drive economic empowerment in Black communities throughout the nation. Williams says that tackling the artist community in Hollywood is integral to promoting financial literacy. “We really want to focus on how can you make money behind that camera, since that where 99% of the opportunities lie,” Williams says.