May 18, 2023
By Edward Henderson
California Black Media
On May 11, the Essie Justice Group (Essie), along with Bay Area leaders, community organizations, and advocates gathered at the Alameda County Superior Courthouse in Oakland to call attention to the damage inflicted on families and communities by the mass incarceration of Black women over generations. The event was part of the annual National Bail Out Campaign (NBO), #FreeBlackMamas.
The NBO #FreeBlackMamas campaign raises awareness about the human and financial costs of incarceration. The press conference focused on the voices and experiences of Black women, who have been disproportionately affected by mass incarceration. This is especially significant given that the number of women in prison has been growing at twice the rate of men in recent decades, with 80% of women in jail being mothers.
Essie is the nation’s leading advocacy organization for women with incarcerated loved ones taking on the injustices created by mass incarceration. They focus on organizing women who have loved ones in prison, including one in four women and one in two Black women in the US. Founded by Gina Clayton-Johnson in May 2014, Essie is a community of Black-led, Black-centered, multicultural organizers with a membership body of mothers, daughters, grandmothers, siblings, and partners of incarcerated people.
Since 2017, Essie has led Black Mama’s Bail Outs in California in the weeks leading up to Mother’s Day. To date, they have posted bond for 13 Black women totaling of $1.9 million. This year, in collaboration with the National Bail Out collective, two Black mothers and caregivers (one in Alameda County and one in Los Angeles County) will be released on bond so they can spend Mother’s Day with their children and families.
Betty McKay, a member of Essie and a formerly incarcerated woman, hosted the event. She set the tone of the gathering by introducing the speakers, sharing her personal story, and leading the audience in the Essie chant ‘We come for ours, and when we come, we win.’
“I hold these bailouts close to my heart because I know what it means to be caged,” said McKay. “We believe in a future where our loved ones are free. What I know to be true, is that we are here because we are still buying our folks freedom, just like slavery days. Mass incarceration is the new slavery. We will continue to buy freedom until we abolish mass incarceration.”
Gina Clayton-Johnson, Executive Director of Essie, spoke passionately about the organization’s mission and shared some of the innovative ways Essie is changing bailout culture. For women who have lower incomes, affording bail is impossible when the median bail amount in California is $50,000, five times the national average. Under her watch, 473 mothers and care givers have been freed nationwide.
“We don’t allow the bail industry to see not one penny of this money that we raise,” said Clayton-Johnson. “We don’t get the discounted rate; we don’t get to pay the 10% that the bail industry lets you pay and then go into debt with them. We raise all the money, give it to the court to buy the person’s freedom. Once that case is disposed of, we get that money back so we can continue to bail out more Black women.”
Clayton-Johnson highlighted the fact that when Back women are released from prison, they can provide support to others who have been victims of the prison industrial complex.
“There are tens of thousands of people who come home from jails and prisons every single week. Where do you think they go? When people come home from prison they are most likely coming home to the arms of a Black woman. What we are here to say is free Black mamas and to remind you that Black women are the blueprint for re-entry.”
Assemblymember Mia Bonta (D-Oakland) spoke about her commitment to the cause of freeing Black women.
“I am making sure our public defenders get funded. When we have a system that puts five dollars to the district attorney’s office and one dollar to the public defender’s office, that is broken,” she said. “Black mamas are going to jail because we’re criminalizing poverty. We need to ensure we are actually building pathways to work and rehousing when our mamas come back to us, when our brothers and sisters come back to us, they do not have any doubt they have a home to go to and can immediately provide for her family.”
Shaundrika Price, a beneficiary of an Essie bond and services, testified about how Essie has impacted her life. A mother of five children, Price was imprisoned, and her bail was set at $200,000. Unable to pay, Price remained in Lynwood Women’s Jail in Los Angeles for months as her trial continued to be pushed back.
“Every person I got to know at the women’s jail had mental health needs and trauma like I did,” said Price. “What people don’t understand is that many of us locked up in the system have not been convicted of a crime. Locking women and Black mamas up is not the answer.”
Brendon Woods, a public defender from Alameda County, was the last speaker. He gave a passionate speech about the injustices surrounding the bail industry.
“This criminal justice system is hellbent on caging Black mamas because they cannot afford to post their bail,” said Woods. “This has nothing to do with public safety. This is about wealth, a system built on money, power, privilege, and White supremacy.”
“California itself holds about 40,000 people a year in a cage and they haven’t been convicted of a crime,” Woods continued. “They are presumed innocent, and they are caged. What this means is that people cannot afford to buy their freedom, or they are coerced into a plea deal for their freedom. It should not be that way.”
For more information or to donate, visit the National Bailout Campaign.
May 18, 2023
By Jaivon Grant
California Black Media
Malcolm X, originally known as Malcolm Little, was born 98 years ago on May 19, 1925. He was a prominent activist and minister during the 1960s civil rights movement. His unapologetic and passionate advocacy for Black rights brought him national attention. However, some have criticized his rhetoric as being extremist and racist.
Others explain that the assertive, Black nationalistic posture he took in his speeches was necessary for Civil-Rights-era America when discrimination and segregation were legal in many parts of the country and racism was routine in many aspects of life.
To that point, Malcolm X, who was assassinated in 1965 at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem, spoke about what some considered his extremist viewpoints.
“I don’t believe in any form of unjustified extremism. But I believe that when a man is exercising extremism, a human being is exercising extremism, in defense of liberty for human beings, it’s no vice.
And when one is moderate in the pursuit of justice for human beings, I say he’s a sinner,” he said.
In 1964, Malcolm X announced his separation from the Nation of Islam, changed his name again to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz and converted to Sunni Islam, the branch of the religion most Muslims around the world practice.
After making a religious pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia and trips to Africa, Malcolm X began to preach less about America’s racist past and divisions and more about Pan Africanism and about the universality of principles like freedom, justice and human rights, especially as they concern people of African descent.
This week, as we celebrate what would have been Malcolm X’s 98th birthday on May 19, here are ten quotes that capture Malcolm X’s promotion of racial healing, tolerance and racial inclusion.
1. On self-love …
“There can be no Black-White unity until there is first some Black unity. We cannot think of uniting with others, until after we have first united among ourselves. We cannot think of being acceptable to others until we have first proven acceptable to ourselves.”
2. On intermarriage …
“It's just one human being marrying another human being or one human being living around and with another human being.”
3. On Truth and Justice …
“I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.”
4. On Peace and Freedom …
“You can't separate peace from freedom, because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.”
5. On Racial and Religious Unity …
“During the past seven days of this holy pilgrimage, while undergoing the rituals of the hajj [pilgrimage], I have eaten from
the same plate, drank from the same glass, slept on the same bed or rug, while praying to the same God—not only with some of this earth's most powerful kings, cabinet members, potentates and other forms of political and religious rulers —but also with fellow‐Muslims whose skin was the whitest of white, whose eyes were the bluest of blue, and whose hair was the blondest of blond—yet it was the first time in my life that I didn't see them as 'White' men. I could look into their faces and see that these didn't regard themselves as 'White’”
6. On Love and Unity …
We need more light about each other. Light creates understanding, understanding creates love, love creates patience and patience creates unity.
7. On Learning to Hate …
“If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”
8. On Overcoming Hatred and Anger …
“Hatred and anger are powerless when met with kindness.”
9. On Fairness and Justice …
“You're not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who says it.”
10. On Human Rights …
“I believe in human beings, and that all human beings should be respected as such, regardless of their color.”
This California Black Media report was supported in whole or in part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library.
May 11, 2023
Associated Press
Los Angeles teachers have overwhelmingly approved a new contract with the LA Unified School District that will give a significant pay raise to educators, nurses, counselors, librarians and other educational staff in the nation's second-largest school system.
United Teachers Los Angeles announced Friday that its 35,000 members voted by a 94 percent margin to ratify the three-year deal that was given tentative approval last month.
The deal calls for a 21% pay increase in increments of 3% or 4% retroactive to last July and through Jan. 1, 2025.
The pact, reached over 11 months of bargaining, also enhances pay for substitute teachers, decreases class sizes by two students, creates enforceable class size caps for special education, provides support for immigrant students and families, and increases mental health and counseling services.
''This contract will set the national standard for all other educators to achieve livable wages and solidify an equitable future where students are supported in a healthy learning environment," UTLA President Cecily Myart-Cruz said in a statement Friday.
District Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho last month said the agreement "is a necessary step not only to make Los Angeles Unified the district of choice for families but also the district of choice for teachers and employees."
The strike shut down the district, which quickly reached a deal with the Service Employees International Union, whose members ratified the pact in April.
Both contracts require approval by the district Board of Education.
The LA Unified School District has more than 500,000 students. It serves Los Angeles and all or part of 25 other cities and unincorporated county areas.
May 11, 2023
By Maxim Elramsisy
California Black Media
Rae Benjamin, a Los Angeles resident and writer for the Netflix series “The Witcher,” is among more than 11,000 members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) participating in a strike that has disrupted film and television production.
For almost a week now, writers have been picketing major studios in Los Angeles and New York City, after failing to reach a new contract agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).
The writers’ contracts expired on May 1 and negotiations with the Film and Motion Picture Association (FMPA) have not resulted in an agreement.
“For me, streaming residuals are really important,” stated Benjamin, one of the few Black writers in the union.
“Whenever they re-air an episode television writers would get a check based upon that,” she explained. “When network shows were the only options, content was constantly re-aired, and it really rewarded people who worked on a popular show. You could be making money from that show, years and years later, because it's in syndication.”
Benjamin says the compensation structure is different for streaming companies like Netflix.
“They refuse to release data on how many people actually watch your shows, even though it's easy to do. Because they're refusing to do that, we could not get accurately paid for our work. We can't get paid the residuals and streaming that we're owed,” she said.
In the past decade, streaming platforms, particularly Netflix, have disrupted the traditional cable television model by producing new shows with shorter seasons in an effort to attract new subscribers.
Last week, the AMPTP offered annual salary increases for writers and made other concessions, but the WGA has yet to respond to the proposal.
“When you see what was put on the table, and then you see that the producers negated most things, even proposals such as making sure that we'll have jobs and not robots take our jobs, and there’s no proposal for that, no. counter for that,” said Benjamin. “It's a little scary to think that, hey, there's an AI that might be able to write your entire show, and no one seems to be fretted about that at all.”
In a statement, AMPTP acknowledged that the emergence of Artificial Intelligence technology “requires a lot more discussion.”
“AI raises hard, important creative and legal questions for everyone. For example, writers want to be able to use this technology as part of their creative process, without changing how credits are determined, which is complicated given AI material can't be copyrighted, the statement reads.
WGA’s proposal stipulated, “AI can’t write or rewrite literary material, can’t be used as source material; and MBA (Minimum Basic Agreement) covered material can’t be used to train AI.” AMPTP rejected the offer and countered with an offer of “annual meetings to discuss advancements in technology.”
AMPTP did not make a counteroffer regarding proposals about duration of employment, which the writers say is too short and akin to freelance work.
“On network shows we would typically be employed for a long time, because there were more episodes. It would be 20 to 30 episodes of the show, which means you were employed 40 to 45 weeks out of the year,” said Benjamin. “We would just take a break in between seasons and come back. So, being a writer was a very stable career. Now, because of extremely short orders of streaming shows, it's become more unstable. Worse than that, these companies don't want to hire people for a reasonable amount of time to complete a show.”
Benjamin says showrunners and show creators cut corners by hiring writers for a short time then build on their work with rewrites and edits.
“The actual writers get a job for two weeks, which is very little pay,” she said. “I think it also disproportionately affects Black creatives, because a lot of times they'll hire us to do the cheapest amount of labor.”
West Hills-based writer Sid Quashie told the Los Angeles times he made $250,000 for a script he sold to Walt Disney Studios in 2003. Sixteen years later in 2019, when he sold a script to Netflix, he made under $100,000.
In 2007, the WGA went on a 100-day strike that cost the city of Los Angeles an estimated $2.1 billion and countless jobs, as all corners of the industry and others adjacent to it were impacted.
Only one week into the 2023 strike, there are already casualties. Late night shows were canceled abruptly. Daily shows stopped. Productions for all shows are tenuous, with many on pause.
Gov. Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass, who have received support from both sides of the dispute, have expressed their concerns and are advocating for a resolution.
Newsom said Tuesday at the Milken Institute Global Conference that the work stoppage “has profound consequences direct and indirect. Every single one of us will be impacted by this, and we’re very concerned about what is going on because both sides are dug in. The stakes are high.”
“Los Angeles relies on a strong entertainment industry that is the envy of the world while putting Angelenos to work in good middle class jobs. I encourage all sides to come together around an agreement that protects our signature industry and the families it supports,” Mayor Bass said.
In the short term, streaming platforms with more scripts banked may have an advantage, as they can continue their productions. Daily and weekly cable shows are at the greatest risk. During the last writer strikes, the producers turned to unscripted content, leading the creation of the reality show Cops and even The Celebrity Apprentice.
The Directors Guild and Screen Actors Guild are also in negotiations, with contracts set to expire at the end of June.