by JR Valrey, Editor in Chief

As our tax dollars go to the oppressive US government that is committed to enacting a slow Palestinian-like genocide on the people of Cuba, which is located in the Carribbean Sea just 90 miles from the shores of Florida, everybody reading this in the US and the Western world has a responsibility to act in whatever way appropriate so that it is understood that you are not OK with mass murder on a national scale. It should also be understood that most of us reading this are metaphorically late to the party. The US government has illegally imposed a 67-year blockade against the island because its people are determined to make decisions for themselves instead of being ruled from Washington, D.C., like so many puppet governments in the world. Ten million people have been surviving for eight months without petrol because the US government, immediately after the US military’s overthrow of President Maduro in Venezuela, imposed an oil blockade. 

First Secretary Sulia Páez of the Cuban Embassy was gracious enough to sit down to set the record straight on the recent barrage of distortions, exaggerations and outright lies that the US government has been pumping through mainstream media about Cuba to justify the illegal imperialist aggression that it’s been meting out to Cuba for nearly seven decades. 

JR Valrey: The US Secretary of War, Marco Rubio, recently released a 100-page document accusing the Cuban government of leading social and political movements that took place in the United States over the last six decades, naming a number of organizations and individuals. What are your thoughts? 

Sulia Páez: Our government has firmly rejected the report published on July 20 by the United States Department of State on the alleged subversive influence of Cuba, considering it to be a new disinformation campaign aimed at justifying the policy of aggression, the oil siege and the coercive measures imposed against the Cuban people.

We have pointed out that the accusations made against our country are unfounded and we have stated that Cuba has been the victim of multiple terrorist attacks organized and financed from the United States.

We have also questioned the use of the concept of “left-wing terrorism” to discredit and attack social movements and expressions of solidarity, and we have denounced the repeated attempts to portray Cuba as a threat in order to legitimize new pressure actions against the island.

Likewise, we have reiterated that we will continue developing relations with the American people and institutions on the basis of respect for International Law, the Charter of the United Nations, and the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

JR Valrey: Cuban President Diaz Carnal addressed the Cuban nation on July 26. What was his message?

Sulia Páez: In his speech at the central ceremony for the 73rd anniversary of the attack on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes barracks in Pinar del Río, President Miguel Díaz-Canel delivered a message of determination and resistance. He stressed that “Cuba is fighting a historic battle today” in defense of our sovereignty and our right to freely choose how we are governed. He strongly denounced the economic blockade imposed by the United States, which he described as “genocide” and a policy of maximum suffocation. He also called on our people to continue acting with audacity, creativity and resilience to build alternatives based on the country’s own strengths.

JR Valrey: With Cubans living through eight months without oil, after the US government initiated an oil blockade at the beginning of the year, can you describe the condition of ordinary people and the social institutions that they depend on, on the island?

Sulia Páez: As our President recently stated during the closing session of the Seventh Ordinary Session of the National Assembly of People’s Power, the economic and social implications of this collective punishment have been humanly unbearable.

The energy blockade has prevented the National Electric Power System from having approximately 1,400 megawatts available each day through what is known as distributed generation.

It has also led to other major hardships for Cuban families, including disruptions to water pumping systems, thereby extending the intervals between supplies of this essential resource.

Due to the shortage of fuels and lubricants, agricultural harvests have been severely affected, as has planting for the coming months. Likewise, most industrial production processes have come to a standstill.

Tourism has also been seriously impacted by the targeting of international markets, the shortage of fuel for international aviation, and threats against hotel companies operating in Cuba.

In the area of healthcare, we have witnessed how intensive care units and the increasingly limited number of surgical procedures remain under the constant threat of power outages putting patients’ lives at risk. 

More than 100,000 patients are currently awaiting surgery, including 12,000 children. In addition, 5 million people living with chronic illnesses face the risk of interruptions to their life-sustaining treatments. A total of 2,888 patients are awaiting hemodialysis treatment, while 375 are waiting for the implantation of a pacemaker.

On top of that, the survival rate of children with cancer in Cuba has dropped dramatically from 85% to 65%, while the infant mortality rate has risen from 4.0 to 9.9 per 1,000 live births.

Recently, we knew that thousands of containers carrying medical supplies, food, photovoltaic equipment, spare parts, and materials needed to repair electricity-generating plants, among other essential resources for sustaining the country’s vital functions, have remained stranded in international ports. This has all been due to threats directed at shipping companies, including those transporting imports for the private sector, such as raw materials and essential consumer goods that are sold directly on the domestic market.

These are only a few examples. The effects of this policy intensify every day.

JR Valrey: Before the oil blockade was implemented, the US government already had a 67-year general blockade in place. Can you talk about that and how this has affected the lives of ordinary Cubans for generations? How has this been kept in place?

Sulia Páez: We have endured the longest-running and most severe sanctions regime in history, whose cumulative impact amounts to more than U.S. $178.7 billion. It is a policy that has affected every sphere of the daily lives of the Cuban people. As it was stated in the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Lester Mallory’s memorandum in 1960, its purpose is to “weaken the economic life of Cuba: to bring about hunger, desperation and the overthrow of the government.”

Today, we are no longer living only under the traditional blockade that we have resisted for more than 67 years; we are now confronting the cumulative effects of that policy, along with an energy blockade. It is an act of genocide that has been maintained despite the overwhelming rejection of the international community and in defiance of the will of thousands of honorable Americans who oppose this policy.

JR Valrey: Many people on the West Coast of the US think that Cubans all look like actor Al Pacino, from the movie “Scarface” or the late Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Can you describe how Black the island’s people are?

Sulia Páez: In Cuba, we often say that we are one great “ajiaco” — a traditional Cuban stew — drawing on the characterization of our national identity made by the Cuban anthropologist and historian Fernando Ortiz. The idea is that, even though many people may have lighter skin, their ancestry may very well include African roots. We are an inclusive and racially mixed nation, where nearly 64% of the Cuban population aged 15 and older is white, nearly 26% is mulatto, and nearly 10% is Black.

From a cultural perspective, the Afro-descendant roots are a cornerstone of Cuban identity, exerting a profound influence on the country’s music, culture, religion and traditions. They also play a significant role in the spiritual life of the Cuban nation.

JR Valrey: Would you compare what is being initiated now in Cuba by the US government as a slow genocide comparable to what just took place in Palestine? Why or why not?

Sulia Páez: What I can tell you is that we are living through a war without bombs. Our President has described it as a multidimensional form of aggression with several components: an ideological one, a cultural one and a third that is media-driven.

“Ideologically, there is an attempt to impose a hegemonic way of thinking. Culturally, there is an effort to erase our identity. And all of this is being reinforced through a vast political communications strategy rooted in supremacist, capitalist and imperial interests, with an extremely high level of media manipulation and disinformation.

JR Valrey: If people would like to stay informed on US and Cuban government relations, where should they go? 

Sulia Páez: You can consult the information published by the country’s main newspapers and media platforms, such as Granma and Cubadebate. You can also visit our Mission’s website and follow our official social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram, X and YouTube.

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 Our tax dollars are funding a slow genocide in Cuba appeared first on San Francisco Bay View.

In commemoration of the Fidel Castro centenary on August 13, 2026, we present remarks given by Djibo Sobukwe at The Symposium on Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution on January 21, 2017, sponsored by the Saturday Free School of Philosophy and Black Liberation at The Church of the Advocate in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

Good afternoon and a warm thank you to the organizing committee and Dr. Monteiro for organizing and inviting me to present at this symposium.

On December 22, 1975, Fidel Castro spoke to more than a million Cuban people in Havana’s plaza of the Revolution. It was the closing day of the first congress of the communist party of Cuba. He spoke about the importance of the congress and reemphasized Cuba’s unwavering support for not only Angola but all of Africa.

It was during this speech that Fidel declared that Cuba is not only a Latin American nation but also a Latin African nation. He said… “ African blood flows freely through our veins. Many of our ancestors came as slaves from Africa to this land. As slaves they struggled quite a great deal.  They fought as members of the liberating army of Cuba. We are brothers and sisters of the people of Africa and we are ready to fight on their behalf.”

So this statement by Fidel is important to give background to some of the thinking in in addition to Cuba’s standing policy of revolutionary internationalism. The tremendous Pan-African contribution by Cuba not only to the African national liberation movements fighting colonialism, but also to the quality of African life in general up to the present is extraordinary.

This makes Fidel Castro not only a revolutionary internationalist but a revolutionary Pan-Africanist as well. This designation is consistent with our position that ideology trumps biology any day.  

Cuba’s contributions to Africa and her people have been extraordinary and unparalleled, no nation has been more generous. I am just presenting some of the highlights here.

The Cuban people under the leadership of Fidel Castro came into power in January 1, 1959. The great revolutionary Ché Guevara, also a leader in the in the Cuban revolution and a close confidant of Fidel Castro, was the first high level Cuban leader to visit Africa, he visited  Egypt and met Egypt’s president, the great Gamal Abdel Nasser in June 1959 who had liberated Egypt from a neocolonial repressive feudal King. Ché went to Egypt to establish diplomatic relations, while there he met several leaders of African liberation movements including the leaders of the Algerian liberation movement the FLN (National Liberation Front of Algeria) who had been fighting French colonialism. Raoul Castro made a follow up visit the following year in 1960. Relations were also established with Guinea and Ghana at that time.

In April 1961 Cuba was attacked by US imperialism which included Cuban counterrevolutionary exiles at the bay of pigs. It is important to note this because the heroic defense by the Cuban people of their Revolution and homeland was tested and required significant human resources and material. In spite of that only eight months after the Bay of Pigs attack, in January 1962 Cuba delivered its first material aid to Africa which was a shipment of weapons for the FLN who were fighting a brutal French Colonialism in which France killed a million Algerians. Cuba had already recognized the FLN as Algeria’s government in exile in 1961. The ship returned to Cuba with 76 wounded Algerians and 20 orphan children from refugee camps. Algeria gained its independence on July 3, 1962 and elected the great Pan-Africanist Ahmed Ben Bella prime minister. He visited Cuba in October 1962 and met Fidel Castro and the Algerians who were receiving health care, training and education. While in Cuba Ben Bella expressed the dire need for doctors in Algeria and requested Cuba’s assistance in this area. Cuba sent 50 doctors to Algeria that year in what became Cuba’s first of a long history of unparalleled medical assistance to Africa. 

In the summer of 1963 Morocco under King Hassan II had expansionist ambitions and wanted to extend Morocco’s border by claiming part of Algeria to be part of Morocco. This resulted in a war between the two countries. Due to superior weaponry Morocco had the advantage and after about a month of fighting it was clear to Ben Bella that Algeria would need even more help (in addition to Egyptian forces already helping) so he called Fidel and requested military assistance, heavy weaponry and troops who knew how to operate them. In October 1963 the Cuban government sent a ship to Algeria that included an armed battalion. This was a huge sacrifice for Cuba because they had a sugar contract with Morocco which they knew would be cancelled if they provided this assistance. Cuba had also just experienced a major hurricane that killed 1400 people. In spite of this Cuba’s solidarity with Algeria was unwavering. Although Cuba wanted to keep its military shipment somewhat covert by arriving and disembarking at night, this had not been possible and they arrived in broad daylight. Once the Cubans arrived and all the military hardware including tanks and artillery was off loaded and ready to go, they were informed by the Algerian commanders to hold off on any further advancement because there was possibility of negotiations that could possibly resolve the conflict peacefully. So Ben Bella and Hassan met in Bamako and Hassan agreed to a cease fire and move out of the disputed territory. It became clear that this would not have happened if the Moroccan forces had not gotten word that the Cubans had arrived.

On Ché’s next trip to Africa in 1964 and 1965 he again met with more representatives of the most radical anticolonial countries and liberation forces in Africa. A few key of those countries were Tanzania, Congo–Brazzaville, and Guinea-Conakry. Some of the liberation movements were MPLA of Angola, Simba’s (Zaire) and PAIGC (Guinea-Bissau). Congo Brazzaville supported the MPLA and Tanzania supported among others, the Simba’s who were Lumumbist fighters following the political line of Patrice Lumumba who had been murdered by Belgian and CIA backed forces in January 1961. Guinea Conakry under the leadership of Sékou Touré supported the PAIGC (The African Party for the independence of Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde). Ché met with Laurent Kabila and the Leadership of the Simba’s, they requested, and Ché committed to send a small battalion of Cuban forces to help the Simba’s who were fighting the neocolonial regime in Zaire which included white Belgian and South African mercenaries under the leadership of the CIA backed Kassavubu and Mubutu government. The Simba leadership requested that the Cuban forces be comprised of black Cubans so they would blend in with the population and the Simba fighters.

Ché went back to Cuba to discuss it with Fidel, the Cuban leadership and to organize the column. Four months later Ché and the Cuban column of about 128 combatants and three doctors arrived in Tanzania where they were to cross over lake Tanganyika to the battle front in Zaire. However the Cubans overestimated the revolutionary potential in Zaire and in Congo–Brazzaville in 1965. The revolt of the Simbas was defeated by CIA mercenaries including white South Africans and Cuban American exiles who were bombing the Simba forces. After a difficult and frustrating 7 months Ché’s column withdrew in November 1965. At that point Ché with his column of 128 guerrillas and three doctors departed. After seven months 6 Cubans were killed in battle and three left due to illness. The key figures in this venture were; Ché, Dreke, Papi and Osmany Cienfuegos ( brother of Camilo Cienfuegos) who was head of the Africa operations. In May of 1965 the second black Cuban column of about 260 men went to Congo-Brazzaville to train the army and the MPLA fighters. MPLA being the leftist anti-colonial liberation movement of Angola. The Cuban column was under the leadership of Jorge Risquét, Manuel Agramonte and Rolando Kindelán. Besides training the training the MPLA and supporting the government, Cuban doctors played a huge role here, because the country was struck with polio and a lot of children were dying from the disease. With the government’s approval, the Cubans organized the first ever vaccination campaign there and vaccinated all children under 5 years of age in the three major cities thereby saving thousands of lives. Most Cubans left there in 1966 with only a small number remaining to train MPLA.

Another country that benefitted immensely from Cuba’s support was one of Africa’s smaller countries but a very important one and that was Guinea- Bissau. Guinea –Bissau had according to the Cubans, the strongest and most organized anti-colonial liberation guerilla movement under the leadership of that great son of Africa, Amilcar Cabral and the PAIGC (The African Party for Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde). The PAIGC began armed struggle in 1963 and after two years they controlled one third of the country and were challenging 20,000 Portuguese troops. The PAIGC was headquartered in Guinea-Conakry which was under the leadership of that great son of Africa, president Ahmed Sékou Touré. These two African leaders were not only very supportive of one another but were ideologically very similar as well. Ché had met Cabral in Conakry for the first time in January 1965. Cabral had requested weapons which Cuba delivered a couple of months later. A group of Cape Verdeans also went to Cuba for training to later join PAIGC guerillas. In January 1966, the seventh anniversary of the Cuban Revolution, Cabral made his first trip to Havana, leading a PAIGC delegation to the first tri-continental conference also known as OSPAAL., which stands for Organization of Solidarity with the Peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Cuba not only hosted this conference but provided an important leadership role in the organization from then on. This is an important political contribution Cuba has made as OSPAAL is the successor to the post Bandung non-aligned movement and provides an ongoing space for anti-imperialist ideological exchange, unity and development. It was on this occasion that Cabral presented his brilliant speech called The Weapon of Theory. While in Cuba, Cabral also detailed his request to Fidel for artillery, vehicles, technicians and doctors. Between 1966 and 1974 out of 50 Cubans who went to Guinea-Bissau 9 died in battle and one was captured that was Pedro Rodriguez Peralta who served 5 years in a Portuguese prison. Peralta was freed in 1974 when the Portuguese regime of Marcello Caetano was overthrown. In 1977 the Guinea-Bissau government under leadership of Luis Cabral awarded him the Amilcar Cabral medal of bravery. 

At the ceremony Luis Cabral said:

“We know that we were able to fight and triumph because other countries and people helped us with weapons, with medicine, with supplies…But there is one nation that in addition to material, political and diplomatic support, even sent it’s children to fight by our side, to shed their blood in our land alongside that of the best children of our country.

This great people, this heroic people, we all know that is the heroic people of Cuba, the Cuba of Fidel Castro, the Cuba of the Sierra Maestra, the Cuba of Moncada… Cuba sent its best sons here to help us in the technical aspects of our war, to help us wage this great struggle… against Portuguese colonialism. One of the sons of Cuba who fought and shed his blood in our land is here with us; our brother and comrade Pedro Rodriguez Peralta who was wounded, and captured on November 18, 1969 and spent 5 years in Portugal in the prison of Caxias. On this day on which we honor our heroes and our martyrs… the government of the Republic of Guinea –Bissau has decided to give our comrade comandante Pedro Rodriguez Peralta the Amilcar Cabral medal of bravery.”

Guinea-Bissau and the PAIGC had won the colonial war in 1973. In November the UN recognized Guinea –Bissau’s independence and the PAIGC as the new government. The victory of the PAIGC in Guinea –Bissau encouraged progressive forces in Portugal to overthrow the Caetano regime in 1974.  

The last example is the famous example of the decisive Cuban support for MPLA in Angola in which they defeated the apartheid government forces of South Africa which set the preconditions for the liberation of Namibia and the end of apartheid. The war in Angola can be broken down into at least three stages or maybe four depending on one’s perspective. Angola is twice the size of France or Texas and in 1974 had a population of 6.4 million people. The first phase of the war was the war for independence from Portuguese colonialism from 1961 to 1975. Cuba had already trained some MPLA fighters in Congo-Brazzaville in 1965. MPLA is the leftist, Marxist oriented anti-colonial movement fighting for Angolan liberation. In the early 1960’s the MPLA began a guerilla war in East Angola against the Portuguese forces there. However there were also two other rebel movements; the FNLA – supported by the Mubutu regime in Zaire and UNITA – supported by the US and South Africa.

Unlike in Guinea –Bissau these rebels were not united and fought each other as much as they did the Portuguese. By 1970 Portuguese wars in Africa consumed up to 40% of the countries budget which combined with the victories of African liberation movements especially in Guinea Bissau that resulted in heavy losses and demoralization of the Portuguese military and facilitated the overthrow by coup d’etat in Portugal of the fascist dictatorship of Marcello Caetano in 1974. 

The new government in Portugal was a liberal government and wanted to grant all of its colonies independence thereby hoping to maintain a neocolonial relationship that would be less costly and more beneficial. In the case of Angola they convened a meeting with all three liberation movements called the Alvor agreement in January 1975 which basically stated that the three liberation movements would form a coalition government on November 11, 1975 that included the Portuguese, each with three cabinet ministers and that until then the Portuguese would rule the country. The idea of a coalition government soon broke down and in October, about one month before the scheduled independence day, the MPLA controlled more of the country than any of the other two groups which were more strictly based on tribal loyalties.

South African troops supported by the FNLA entered Angola from the south escalating the crisis into a war involving troops from other countries. According to the book, Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington,and Africa, 1959 – 1976,  by professor Piero Gleijeses, this intervention marks the beginning of the second phase of the war just weeks before independence. Zairian forces supported by FNLA entered in the north. As a result, MPLA requested military assistance from Cuba. Castro complied and launched Operation Carlotta. Carlotta was the name of an enslaved African woman in Cuba who led a slave rebellion against the Spanish. In tribute, the Cuban solidarity action in Angola was named after Carlotta. 

Fidel requested support for this operation from the Soviet Union in the form of transportation of Cuban troops to Angola, but the Soviets refused. It was not until months later that the Soviets would send weapons. Fidel rallied his troops to fight the racist fascist South African apartheid regime in strict solidarity and defense of Angola and their African brethren. Fidel would later in his speech to the Cuban people commemorating the fifteenth anniversary (in April 1976) of the heroic, glorious victory at the “Bay of Pigs” state:

“At Girón [Bay of Pigs], African blood was shed, that of the selfless descendants of a people who were slaves before they became workers, and who were exploited workers before they became masters of their homeland. And in Africa, together with the blood of the heroic fighters of Angola, Cuban blood, that of the sons of Martí, Maceo and Agramonte, that of the heirs to the internationalist tradition set by Máximo Gómez and Ché Guevara, also flowed. Those who once enslaved man and sent him to America perhaps never imagined that one of those peoples who received the slaves would one day send their fighters to struggle for freedom in Africa. The victory in Angola was the twin sister of the victory at Girón. For the yankee imperialist, Angola represents an African Girón. At one time we said that imperialism had suffered its great defeats in the month of April: Girón, Vietnam, Cambodia, etc. This time the defeat came in March. On the twenty-seventh of that month, when South African soldiers crossed the Namibian border, after a retreat of more than 700 kilometers, one of the most brilliant pages in the liberation of Black Africa was written.”

Fidel sent an armed battalion with artillery specialists to Angola. They fought FNLA and Zairian forces backed by the US in the battle of Quifangondo, just north of the capital Luanda, which was controlled by MPLA. This was the most significant battle before independence. The MPLA and the Cubans successfully defended the capital city Luanda by the independence date of November 11, 1975. In the weeks after independence the South African and UNITA forces who had been invading from the South and defeating MPLA forces of resistance continued their advance towards the prize of Luanda. In their haste however they ran into an ambush by Cuban forces and suffered heavy losses near a village called Ebo south of Luanda. It was this bloody defeat at Ebo that caused the South Africans to retreat temporarily in 1975. The South African forces temporarily retreated but would rebuild their forces in the coming years. 

The third stage of the war was a full blown post-independence civil war from 1981 to 1988. The South Africans invaded and controlled the southern Angolan province of Cuando Cubango they launched their fiercest attacks in 1987 and 1988 this is where the famous and decisive battle of Cuito Cuanavale was fought in 1988 where Cuban and FAPLA (MPLA’s military) forces defeated the South Africans in a fierce artillery, antitank and anti-aircraft battle even though they were outnumbered. 

This was Cuba’s most stunning and extensive military intervention and success in Africa because by defeating the fascist apartheid regime of South Africa which was backed by the USA it set in motion a domino effect of liberation in all of Southern Africa, including Namibia’s victory in it’s war of independence in 1990 and Nelson Mandela’s release from prison the same year. As Nelson Mandela said when he visited Cuba in 1991 expressing his gratitude, “The Cuban people hold a special place in the hearts of the people of Africa.”

The Cuban internationalists have made a contribution to African independence, freedom and justice, un-paralleled for its principled and selfless character. From its earliest days the Cuban revolution has itself been a source of inspiration to all freedom-loving people. We admire the sacrifices of the Cuban people in maintaining their independence and sovereignty in the face of a vicious, imperialist orchestrated campaign to destroy the impressive gains made in the Cuban Revolution.”

Although the apartheid government wasn’t defeated until Mandela became South Africa’s first democratically elected president in 1994, the civil war in Angola didn’t completely stop until 2002 when Savimbi was killed.

A summary of the types of contributions Cuba has given to Africa over the years as outlined in the book Conflicting Missions: 

• Military hardware; all sorts of weapons including artillery, tanks and vehicles.

• Military commanders, combatants, weapons specialists, mechanics and technicians.

• Military training in Africa and in Cuba (all expenses paid)

• Construction workers who built roads, housing, bridges etc.

• Medical brigades including doctors, nurses, physician assistants and medical supplies.

• Education: All expenses paid full scholarships to thousands of Africans who came and still continue to come to Cuba to become medical doctors, nurses, engineers, technicians and mechanics. Medical aid to Africa continues to this day. Cuba’s exemplary role in fighting Ebola in Africa is a good example.

• Dr. Piero Gleijeses documented in his book that in 2002 there were more than two thousand doctors in twentyone different African countries.

In closing, I want to read an excerpt from a speech delivered by our beloved brother and comrade Kwame Ture at the Symposium on Malcolm X and the Student Non-violent coordinating committee held in Havana, Cuba on May 19, 1990:

“On behalf of the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (AAPRP) it is a great honor to be invited to this symposium. We wish to thank Casa de Las Americas and the Centro de Estudios Sobre America for hosting the delegation. We know one of the greatest crimes an individual can commit is that of being ungrateful. I could never be ungrateful to the people of Cuba nor Cuba’s incarnation- Fidel Castro. In 1967 US imperialism was seriously planning to assassinate me. It still is, – as I am more determined to destroy it today than in 1967. In 1967 I was at the level of my lowest organizational strength. It was Fidel Castro who before world revolutionaries at the Organization of Latin American states conference said, ‘if imperialism touches one grain of hair on his head, we shall not let the fact pass without retaliation’. It was he, who on his own behalf, asked them all to stay in contact with me when I returned to the states to offer me protection. This period as I pointed out was a critical period in my political life. I would make many errors, but of one thing I am certain, my ability to continue serving in the Revolution is greatly attributed to just one more act of an infinite number of Fidel Castro’s contributions to world humanity. I am sure I will never be ungrateful to the revolutionary people of Cuba as long as I live, as I shall remain eternally faithful to revolutionary principles.”

Thank you!

Sources:

• Cabral, Amílcar. Unity and struggle: speeches and writings. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1979.

• Castro, F., (1976) “We Stand With The People of Africa” Vinceremos Brigade Pamphlet

• Castro, F., Taber, M., & Márques, G. G. (1984). Fidel Castro speeches: Cuba’s internationalist foreign policy, 1975-80. New York: Pathfinder Press.

• Campbell, H. (2010) Cuito Cuanavale: A Tribute to Fidel Castro and the African Revolution http://www.horacecampbell.net/2010/10/cuito-cuanavale-tribute-to-fidel-castro.html

• Gleijeses, P. (2002). Conflicting missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959-1976. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

• Hawkins, A. (2005, May 16). Portugal 1974; How fascist dictatorship fell. Retrieved January 19, 2017, from http://www.themilitant.com/2005/6919/691950.html

• Mandela, N. (1991) Speech by Nelson Mandela at the Rally in Cuba on the 38th anniversary of the start of the Cuban Revolution on Friday, July 26, 1991 transcript from http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs3733.html

• Ture, K (1990) Malcolm X Shabazz and The Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, Speech delivered by Kwame Ture at Malcolm X Symposium Havana Cuba May 19, 1990

Djibo Sobukwe is originally from the Dutch Caribbean, a retired educator, and a member of the Black Alliance for Peace.

The post Fidel Castro, the Cuban Revolution, and Africa appeared first on San Francisco Bay View.

A firsthand review of Reflectacles finds the eyewear delivers a real sense of protection in an era of expanding facial recognition, while a comparison with Zenni ID Guard shows why readers should treat anti-tracking claims carefully.

Where I, as a buyer, found confidence in real-world camera tests with Reflectacles, another major eyewear retailer openly warns that its own product cannot promise anonymity.

by Tabari Morris

Privacy eyewear is not a cure-all, but it may offer one of the few practical options available to people who want more control over how their faces are scanned, mapped and stored.

With facial recognition becoming more common in smartphones, companies like Flock, Axon, camera networks for both private and public purposes, people interested in protecting themselves need products that will help decrease the likelihood of them being recognized through their facial features. An experiment that I carried out showed that Reflectacles really worked with the cameras I tested, and gave a real feeling of security when using them outdoors. The explanation provided by Zenni Optical about ID Guard helps to understand that these are anti-tracking glasses and not anonymity products.

Why this matters

The problem is not simply an issue of fashion or novelty. Eyewear brands like Reflectacles and Zenni ID Guard represent products appealing to the growing market of people concerned with surveillance, databases, and tracking their identities, who may use such glasses to interfere with infrared systems to some extent. But most often the most solid evidence to support these arguments comes from corporate materials themselves.

Reflectacles says that their glasses are designed to avoid facial recognition technology that uses infrared lighting and infrared 3D mapping. They explain how their product works based on two analog technologies; infrared light blocking lenses and reflective frames. The Ghost glasses I got with Dark-IR lenses seem to make a visible impact on cameras and have boosted my level of confidence when in public because watching me and recognizing me are two different things.

The purchase of Reflectacles was driven by my desire to reclaim some sense of privacy in daily living following the awareness of the stock alert from the company and its long-established privacy policy. There’s a practical difference between how the glasses appear in person and how they register in photos and video, which aligns with Reflectacles’ broader claim that the products are meant to alter how cameras and infrared systems read the wearer.

I had a chance to observe the glasses at work on several different cameras and realized that using them made my movements in the public area feel different. I haven’t seen the demonstration effect on all the systems like Flock; however, the ones that I was on, I couldn’t see my eyes. And it is also newsworthy since it is an honest user review that answers the very first question people are interested in regarding the product.

I compared the competition that has been advertised in BART stations and billboards throughout the City and discovered the following.

Zenni markets ID Guard as an anti-infrared coating that helps disrupt unwanted tracking and says its proprietary coating offers up to 80% more near-infrared protection than standard lenses. On its support page, Zenni says the coating reflects 80.44% of near-infrared light in the 700-1100 nm range and may interfere with Face ID or Windows Hello because those systems can rely on infrared light.

But Zenni also includes a critical disclaimer that should matter to readers weighing the product’s real-world value. The company says EyeQLenz and Zenni ID Guard are designed to reflect signals to help disrupt unwanted tracking only under certain conditions, that results may vary because of recognition technology and environmental factors, and that Zenni does not guarantee anonymity or total protection from surveillance and biometric identification.

Zenni further says users are responsible for complying with anti-masking, biometric, identification and facial recognition laws, along with private property rules, and that the company is not liable for misuse of the eyewear. In plain terms, that means the product is being sold as limited defensive eyewear, not as a reliable shield against every camera, every algorithm or every legal setting.

The practical distinction is not subtle. Reflectacles presents itself as privacy eyewear built around anti-surveillance use from the start, while Zenni frames ID Guard as a broader lens product with privacy benefits but explicit limits.

This is important as the viewer might think that all glasses meant to block facial recognition are doing the same thing. However, as can be observed from the products so far available, this is not the case as Reflectacles focuses on interfering with cameras while Zenni discourages the use of its product for anonymity.

For readers trying to protect themselves, the strongest responsible message is not that any glasses will make someone invisible. It is that some products may reduce how effectively certain infrared-based systems capture facial details, but real-world results depend on the camera, the lighting, the algorithm and the environment around where the glasses are worn.

That is why this review should be read as both endorsement and warning. Reflectacles earned confidence from a buyer who says the glasses worked in personal camera tests, but readers should still avoid absolute claims and should pay close attention to the kind of fine print Zenni places on its own anti-tracking product pages as well as the other products that come out in the future.

If widespread surveillance cannot be stopped immediately, people may still look for tools that help restore some measure of choice and comfort. In that context, Reflectacles stands out here as the more convincing privacy-first option, while Zenni ID Guard reads more like a conditional layer of interference than a dependable answer to facial recognition.

Tabari Morris is Managing Editor at the San Francisco Bayview as well as an investigative journalist. He can be reached at Tabari@sfbayview.com

The post Reflectacles review doubles as a privacy PSA for readers navigating biometric tracking appeared first on San Francisco Bay View.

by Eric ‘E Da Ref’ Hunter

On the morning of June 29, 2026, the Bertie-Martin Regional Detention Center in Windsor, North Carolina, became the focus of national attention after inmates seized control of portions of the facility in what officials described as a hostage situation.

According to public reports, the incident began around 5:00 a.m., when inmates assaulted correctional officers and took three staff members hostage. One officer escaped almost immediately. The remaining hostages were released through negotiations by approximately 9:30 a.m.

Tactical units from the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (NCSBI), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), bomb squad personnel, and numerous county sheriff’s departments established a massive security perimeter around the detention center. By approximately 1:45 p.m., authorities declared the facility secure. The staff members who were injured received medical treatment, and all 88 inmates housed at the jail were transferred to other correctional facilities while officials began assessing structural damage.

Many people look at this as an isolated incident. But this is the response to a system that constantly violates human rights. Most of the times when prison uprisings take place, the corporate media pushes this fallacious narrative that it spontaneously erupted from nowhere. History shows us that situations like these are actually the result of years of neglect, deteriorating living conditions, inadequate medical care, mental health crises, broken grievance systems, and the feeling of hopelessness.

Reports from community members and official records have highlighted longstanding concerns regarding inmate care at Bertie-Martin. Whether those concerns directly contributed to the June 29 uprising is up to the People to decide.

As someone who is a member of Black Riders Liberation Party (an organization that was created in prison), I’ve worked on outreach campaigns for solidarity with prison hunger strikes for human rights demands, Break-The-Lock Political Prisoner support, and Book Drives to prison; I came to an understanding that mass incarceration is driven by a corporate private industry built off the profits of prison plantation labor.

When profits are prioritized above the people, it creates the environment for inhumane conditions to exist, and the resistance against a system that benefits from these inhumane conditions is a means of survival and self-preservation. This is when the contradictions of the U.S. Constitution (such as the First, Fourth, Eighth, 13th and 14th Amendments) come to the surface.

This is not just a North Carolina issue. It’s not just a prison issue. Prison is just a reflection of the ghetto colonies across America and the attempt to contain and preserve the exploitation of the people by the ruling class. The Bertie-Martin incident is another reminder of the reality that cannot be ignored. It brings up the questions of what led to this situation.

Were inmates given voice or opportunity to report unsafe or inhumane conditions before tensions reached a breaking point? Were medical and mental health needs being addressed? Have the previous complaints been investigated thoroughly? What preventative measures were overlooked? These are the questions that will lead us to take the proper steps to create transformative change in society by getting rid of an unjust system.

The events at Bertie-Martin should not simply be remembered as a hostage crisis, but a story of struggle that shows how desperation reaches the point where people believe they have nothing left to lose. In the hidden universities of the prison plantations across America, there is a cultivation of consciousness created by the conflict between the haves and have-nots.

The prison walls may separate incarcerated people from the public, but they should never separate the public from the truth.

The post The Breaking Point: Behind the rebellion in Bertie-Martin Prison appeared first on San Francisco Bay View.

by Leah Harmony

If one walks or rides past The East Oakland Collective on Aug. 22, 2026, deep in East Oakland, there will be, as there often is in those parts, a gathering of beautiful people doing beautiful things. And, while a meeting with those descriptors is not uncommon in Oakland, nor at the Collective, we are approaching Digital Underground Day, and this day in particular, marks the sixth year of a special partnership in honor of Oakland’s own Shock G.

Hygiene kits, snack bags and hearty bag lunches will be built by families, friends, and rappers, yep, rappers, all showing up in service to one another, for one another, and to honor the generous spirit of Shock.

Through music and memory, East Oakland Collective’s work brings those particular currents together annually, by connecting those willing, with the daily labor of meeting people’s needs and the cultural legacy of Oakland artists who have always known service-to-others as power to the people.

I spoke with Candice Elder, an East Oakland native whose organization has built a broad network of food, housing and mutual-aid programs, and one of her partners, ‌Mystic, an educator, a Grammy-nominated Oakland artist and member of the Digital Underground family, to tell us what it’s all about. Hint: It’s not the hokey pokey.

Leah Harmony: Candice, for readers meeting you for the first time, who are you — and what first convinced you East Oakland needed an organization like East Oakland Collective?

Candice Elder: I am an Oakland native, born and raised in East Oakland. I wanted to foster and cultivate the creativity and innovation of millennials to drive change here. I saw that there were not many young adults involved in local civic engagement, and I wanted to change that by elevating the voices of millennial East Oakland residents.

Leah Harmony: What was happening in East Oakland when EOC began?

Candice Elder: There was a rise in homelessness, decades of disinvestment and looming gentrification. But our initial focus areas came directly from the community. At a packed town hall in 2016, East Oakland residents identified blight and illegal dumping, civic engagement, homelessness services and solutions, and neighborhood planning as priorities. Uplifting community needs remains at the heart of EOC. Since then, we have also addressed systemic problems involving healthy food access and food insecurity.

Leah Harmony: Mystic, how does Oakland itself shape that spirit of service and resistance?

Mystic: Oakland made me, baby. When you grow up here — or come here and grow into yourself — you see the continued devastation from COINTELPRO, the assassination of members of our community and redlining. You grow up with it. You see it. You know the injustice.

But we have always been about it here. It didn’t matter if you were hip-hop, progressive or a street cat. You knew what injustice looked and tasted like. When there were opportunities to resist it—to beautifully resist it, as I say—we showed up. Oakland has helped create the narrative and framework, globally speaking, around liberation, justice and the power of the people.

Leah Harmony: Candice, outsiders often hear only about East Oakland’s problems. What strengths get overlooked?

Candice Elder: Our deep sense of community, resilience and commitment to taking care of one another. Residents, grassroots organizations, small businesses, faith communities, artists and local leaders consistently step up to create solutions with and for the community. East Oakland is rich in culture, creativity, history and innovation. Our people have always been resourceful and powerful, and that community spirit is one of our greatest assets.

Leah Harmony: What does mutual aid mean beyond the buzzword?

Candice Elder: It means communities being resilient and supplying our own needs instead of relying on government and agencies to save us. Mutual aid is critical to EOC. Community support allows us to distribute essential food and supplies every day and in times of crisis.

Mystic: If the powers that be could serve the whole community, East Oakland Collective wouldn’t need to exist. A nonprofit’s goal in service should be to work itself out of a job because the need it is meeting has been addressed. I don’t want people to have to come to us for food or water. Everybody deserves to care for their body, have their humanity seen and be treated with respect and kindness.

Leah Harmony: How did Digital Underground become part of this work?

Mystic: After Shock G became an ancestor, me Money B, Clee, Atron and Danita had a conversation about how we could honor his love of people and generosity. Atron brought East Oakland Collective to the table and introduced us to Candice.

We felt immediately that Shock would love it. The work is about people’s humanity and meeting people where they are. It is in the legacy of the Black Panther Party and serving the people — understanding that a community’s basic daily needs include food and the ability to care for ourselves. We met with Candice, and now we are in the sixth year of the partnership.

Candice Elder: It has grown into an incredible collaboration rooted in community, service and a shared commitment to addressing food insecurity among Oakland’s unhoused residents and families experiencing economic hardship. Digital Underground has helped us provide direct support and bring greater visibility to food insecurity and homelessness in Oakland.

For unhoused residents, food access is about more than having groceries. Many people living outdoors, in vehicles or in temporary situations do not have kitchens, refrigeration or clean water. Fresh, prepared, ready-to-eat meals are critical. Through this partnership, we connect more people with meals, groceries and essential supplies while drawing attention to the broader conditions behind food insecurity and housing instability.

Digital Underground brings a unique cultural legacy, platform and connection to Oakland. What makes the collaboration especially meaningful is that it goes beyond a one-time event or donation. Six years represents a sustained commitment to Oakland and to people who are too often overlooked.

Leah Harmony: What is the annual Shock G celebration, and how does it connect with Feed the Hood?

Candice Elder: A cornerstone of Feed the Hood is its annual partnership with Digital Underground honoring the late Gregory “Shock G” Jacobs. Shock G was a pioneering artist and a passionate advocate for Oakland communities and social justice. Since his passing, EOC and members of Digital Underground have come together each August to celebrate his life and commitment to uplifting the community.

The event brings residents, artists, community leaders and volunteers together to provide food, resources and services to hundreds of unhoused families while celebrating Oakland’s cultural heritage. It embodies Shock G’s generosity, creativity and community care. Remembrance becomes action.

Leah Harmony: Mystic, what has that remembrance meant to the Digital Underground family?

Mystic: It has been part of our healing journey. Losing our brother brought devastation, but being in community with each other is part of the healing process. The work may start as, “This gives us something to do.” But the beauty is that we get to be together and love on each other while preparing for the event.

Leah Harmony: We lost Cleetis “Clee” Mack of Digital Underground in April. He was also an intimate part of it. His absence will leave a big, gaping space.

Mystic: Clee loved Feed the Hood. It was deeply important to him. I am usually the crew representative who gets up to speak that day, and for the past five years, Clee has been the person beside me. I will not have my partner or my brother with me this year.

In connection with Shock, Clee, Feed the Hood and the Black Panthers, we are the memory keepers. We create memories while volunteering and while traveling in the caravan to serve the community. Those memories include laughter, love and smiles. They cannot take away our pain, but the greatest love in this world is being of service to others. If we practice more kindness, compassion, empathy and community, we just might be all right.

Leah Harmony: How does Oakland’s music connect to activism and mutual aid?

Mystic: A lot of Oakland artists are also educators and come from families with histories of activism and organizing. That is represented in the music. Not every artist is down for the cause, and that’s OK. I would rather see people learn through community than step into leadership when they are not about the people or service.

Hip-hop removes us from the confines of the conditions in which we live. It teaches us that our experiences in West, East or North Oakland are not isolated. These conditions exist everywhere, and music brings people together. Hip-hop has always been a unifying force here. It might not seem hella rebellious now, but in our younger era it was fucking rebellious and radical, very much in the tradition of punk music.

Hip-hop has changed, but the conditions have not. Those conditions are still reflected in the music of young people. Oakland artists still use music, social media and community events to uplift justice. There may be more emphasis on financial rewards, but there have always been people who were only trying to make a dollar.

Leah Harmony: How do young people find their place in movements like Black August and service to the people?

Mystic: A huge part of Black August is political and sociopolitical education — raising our consciousness. The books, speeches and videos are available, but getting through the noise of the internet can be difficult. I think young people need more love and understanding. I offer myself by saying, “Tell me what you need. How can I support what you want to do? If I don’t know, I will find somebody who does.”

We are also more isolated after the height of COVID. We have to keep building community. Feed the Hood helps because it is not only one annual event. It happens every quarter, and East Oakland Collective offers opportunities to serve year-round. Families can volunteer together. People cross geographic and economic boundaries and come together because they believe everybody deserves to have their humanity seen and their basic needs met.

Leah Harmony: Candice, what does EOC provide today, and what do the numbers tell us?

Candice Elder: We provide free groceries and household supplies, diapers and baby supplies, rent-relief application support through Keep People Housed Oakland, a quarterly Freecycle Pop-Up Thrift Store, weekly encampment outreach, hot meals for unhoused residents and the stipend-based East Oakland SuSu Financial Literacy Academy.

We serve approximately 10,000 people a year. More than 500 families are served each week, more than 250 families have been prevented from becoming unhoused, and more than 10,000 volunteers have been mobilized. Feed the Hood has delivered 92,500 meals, and our free grocery program has distributed more than 2 million pounds of fresh and nutritious food.

Leah Harmony: What is the greatest challenge now?

Candice Elder: Consistent and sustainable funding. Rising operating costs, growing demand for food and essential services, and limited unrestricted funding place pressure on our staff, programs and capacity. With unlimited resources, I would build a free grocery market and use vacant land to create alternative housing for our unhoused neighbors.

Leah Harmony: How can readers help?

Candice Elder: We appreciate donations of small or travel-size hygiene supplies — soap, shampoo, lotion, toothpaste, toothbrushes, deodorant, hand sanitizer, wipes, menstrual products, socks and other essentials. Volunteers assemble them into hygiene kits for Oakland’s unhoused neighbors. We could not do this work without the hundreds of volunteers who distribute groceries and make bagged lunches at Feed the Hood.

Mystic: Even if you can’t make the annual Shock G event, Feed the Hood happens four times a year. There are opportunities to volunteer and donate year-round. Tune in to the East Oakland Collective — and wherever you live, tune in to the people serving around you. Shout out to Mister Rogers: Find the helping hands. The neighborhood is the hood.

Leah Harmony: Lastly, what do you think Shock would feel about the Shock G Forever and Feed the Hood if he saw it today?

Mystic: I think Shock would love it. It serves people, brings the Digital Underground family together and brings the broader community together. Through service, we honor multiple legacies — not only his, but the Black Panther Party’s legacy of serving the people and feeding the community.

People know pieces of Shock — the videos he sent us of birds, ducks and other animals, or his deep philosophical thoughts. But I’m not sure people know how much he loved people, how much he loved us and how much he loved bringing people together. Do I think he would sit on the organizing committee? No. Would he show up? Absolutely. Would he help fund it? Absolutely.

Do I think he would love it? I think he would love it.

The East Oakland Collective is on IG: @eastoaklandcollective; and Candice can be reached at candice@eastoaklandcollective.com.

Mystic is on IG: @thatgirlmystic

Leah Harmony is manager of production for the San Francisco Bay View, a writer and film producer. You can reach her at leah@sfbayview.com.

The post FEED THE HOOD- where memories, music, and public service intersect appeared first on San Francisco Bay View.

by JR Valrey, Editor in Chief

The Oakland Police Department being released from federal oversight after 23 years is one of the biggest national news stories currently being missed by local mainstream news, for obvious reasons.

The police murders and terrorism have not ceased; in fact, a man was killed by OPD under questionable circumstances two weeks ago, prior to my writing this.

Adante Pointer is a well-known Bay Area-based attorney and human rights advocate who has been a champion for people’s rights, specializing in cases of police abusing people in the community. I sat down with him because there is a lot of talk locally about transparency in policing and police accountability, and he is an expert in that lane.

JR Valrey: What are your thoughts on the Oakland Police Department being let off of federal oversight after the police terrorism and corruption uncovered in the Riders case 23 years ago?

Adante Pointer: I think the fact that it took OPD 23 years to finally get its act straight speaks volumes about how poor OPD was doing its job when federal oversight first began, and how hard it has been to fix the culture within the department that was clearly resistant to adhering to policing Oakland in a constitutional way that followed the law and respected Oaklanders’ rights to be free from police terror.

The department’s checkered past is well documented, from how it intentionally recruited police officers from the Deep South to patrol – or some might say occupy – Oakland streets in an effort to intimidate and control Oakland’s once booming Black population, to the many scandals that have plagued the department: from the Celeste Guap sex scandal, to shooting and killing people in their sleep, to subjecting mostly Black men to strip searches in public, to fake search warrants, to violent crowd control tactics which injured so many people, to conducting sham internal affairs investigations all the way up to the Riders, which were a band of cops who framed, beat, robbed and planted evidence on Oaklanders.

JR Valrey: Do you think the Oakland Police are any less corrupt now than they were then?

Adante Pointer: I certainly see less cases come across my desk concerning OPD now than when I first started practicing law 21 years ago or when I was a young man growing up in West Oakland. However, like many organizations, it’s only as good as its last scandal. So whether the Oakland Police Department has really cleaned up remains to be seen.

JR Valrey: What are your thoughts on the new chief of police in Oakland?

Adante Pointer: After having played musical chairs in the chief of police position, it is good to know that we have someone who is chief, who is willing to take the role and doesn’t have so many skeletons in his closet that they fall out on day one or two of him taking the helm of the department.

Frankly, the bar has been set pretty low given all that the department has gone through, and like they say when you’re on the ground, there’s only one way to go and that’s up! For Oakland’s sake, and the people in the community, I want the chief to succeed because we know from experience the lessons that history has taught us: Failure as a chief leads to more people’s rights being violated, and lives harmed or cut short.

JR Valrey: Recently the SFPD illegally ran up in the Black Panther apartment building, and I know that you are representing the residents. Can you give the public some info on what went on?

Adante Pointer: It’s important to note that many of the key facts around SFPD storming The Black Panther apartment building in West Oakland are still shrouded in secrecy, and my law firm continues to investigate and gather more information.

However, what we do know is that about 20 SFPD officers came over to Oakland from San Francisco to reportedly arrest someone for robbing two people in San Francisco. They did this after surveilling the Black Panther apartment building and the suspected robber for 30 days, which is an enormous amount of time to commit police resources for a chain snatcher when folks routinely call the police during violent situations and are placed on hold or receive little to no response from SF or Oakland police departments.

So it begs to question why would SFPD commit such a tremendous amount of resources for a chain snatcher? Why would SFPD surveil a building for 30 days in pursuit of one person all the way over here in Oakland when there are crimes being committed every day in San Francisco that go unsolved and barely investigated? It makes you wonder whether they had an ulterior motive to storm the building and terrorize the many women and children that call The Black Panther Apartments home.

JR Valrey: You are representing the Oakland rapper Mistah FAB who recently was arrested.,Can you elaborate whether or not you think that there was foul play by the police involved in his arrest?

Adante Pointer: That remains to be seen; however, what I can say is many, many people, including myself, were surprised to see the police once again expand so many resources to try to crack down on one person who they believe fired fireworks; when anyone who has watched the news or been in Oakland, or any of the surrounding cities know that fireworks are popped off all over the city on every other block with firework shows that rival or are better than what the city or the Bay Area governments put on themselves.

With all that being said, for OPD, which has far too many unsolved murders, far too many unsolved shootings, far too many stolen cars and property crimes to send a group of 20 or so cops to raid three different locations looking for fireworks is almost a cruel joke to the residents of the city of Oakland. The everyday person wishes OPD spent those type of resources on finding the many missing girls of our community, who are being trafficked and exploited in the sex trade.

JR Valrey: How can people get in touch with your law firm? When can people catch you on tv?

Adante Pointer: The People can find me and keep up with the cases, issues and people I fight for by following us on social media on IG, FB and Tik Tok @Adante_Pointer_Esq @lawyersftp or our website www.Lawyersftp.com

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 Bay Area lawyer Adante Pointer talks police accountability after the latest OPD scandals appeared first on San Francisco Bay View.

by JR Valrey, Editor in Chief

Weeks after Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee and the top brass of the Oakland Police Department were posing together in newspapers, smiling, talking about how the Oakland Police Department has fulfilled the criteria to be lifted off of federal oversight after 23 years, the police murdered a man under questionable circumstances in East Oakland. And in line with the past behavior of the department, trying to control the narrative, the Oakland Police have been slow to release any information to the public.

I talked with activist Lance Wilson of the Anti-Police Terror Project to discuss the police murder and recent happenings within the Oakland Police Department.

JR Valrey: Can you give us whatever information has been released about the recent police murder on July 13 in East Oakland?

Lance Wilson: What we know right now is limited, and that is part of the problem. OPD shot and killed a man on Monday, July 13, in the area of the 4000 block of International Boulevard in East Oakland. Initial reporting says the incident began with a California Highway Patrol pursuit and that CHP called OPD for assistance. OPD then encountered the man, used what they described as less-lethal and lethal force, and killed him at the scene. OPD has said no officers were injured.

What is deeply concerning is that the public has been given shifting language and very few facts. First, the narrative was that the man “lunged” at officers with a weapon. Then the language became that he “attacked” officers. Later, OPD said he had a bladed object. But the public has not been shown body-worn camera footage, dispatch audio, a full timeline, or clear evidence that this man posed an immediate deadly threat that justified killing him.

From my perspective, this is exactly why we demand transparency immediately after every police killing. The public should not be asked to accept OPD’s version of events before the evidence is released. A family has lost someone. A community has lost someone. And Oakland deserves facts, not a carefully managed police narrative. It has been a week now, and we still have not been provided the name of the man killed by OPD.

JR Valrey: Now that Oakland has a new police chief, who is he, and how has his leadership affected the department?

Lance Wilson: James Beere is a longtime OPD insider. He is a 29-year veteran of the Oakland Police Department and had been serving as interim chief before Mayor Barbara Lee selected him as permanent chief. Reporting notes that he has spent nearly his entire law enforcement career inside OPD, including assignments in vice, narcotics, intelligence and criminal investigations.

Our concern is that calling someone “new leadership” does not mean Oakland has a new culture inside OPD. Beere comes from within the very institution that has been under federal oversight for more than two decades because of brutality, corruption and civil rights violations. Less than a week after he was named permanent chief, OPD killed someone in East Oakland. That does not feel like a new chapter. It feels like the same status quo with a different person at the podium.

The question is not whether Chief Beere can say the right words about reform. The question is whether he will release the footage, tell the truth, discipline officers, cooperate with independent oversight, and stop the cycle of OPD killing people and then asking the public to trust them.

JR Valrey: What are your thoughts on OPD being let off federal oversight, which they had been under since the Riders case in 2003?

Lance Wilson: It is dangerous and premature. OPD was placed under federal oversight because of the Riders scandal, where officers were accused of beating, kidnapping, and planting drugs on West Oakland residents. The resulting 2003 Negotiated Settlement Agreement required reforms around use of force, discipline, reporting, and racial disparities, among other issues.

For more than 20 years, OPD has had scandal after scandal, chief after chief, reform promise after reform promise. The department has been unable to police itself with a federal monitor watching. So we have no reason to believe it will suddenly police itself once that monitor is gone.

We are also deeply concerned that federal oversight may end at the exact moment OPD has killed three people in one year. From 2015 to 2025, OPD killed three people. This year alone, OPD has already killed three people. That should stop every city leader in their tracks. This is not the time to loosen oversight. This is the time to strengthen civilian accountability, fully fund the Police Commission, CPRA, and the Office of Inspector General, and make sure OPD is not left to investigate and excuse itself.

JR Valrey: In your opinion, has the possible end of federal oversight and the hiring of a new police chief made Black residents of Oakland safer?

Lance Wilson: No. Black Oaklanders are not safer because OPD has a new chief. Black Oaklanders are not safer because a federal judge may end oversight. Safety is not a press release. Safety is not a personnel announcement. Safety is not OPD telling us they have complied with a checklist.

Safety means our people are not killed when they are in crisis. Safety means families do not have to fight for months or years to get basic answers. Safety means police do not get to shift their stories after killing someone.

Safety means our communities have housing, healthcare, mental health support, violence prevention, youth programs, and crisis response that does not begin with a gun and a badge.

Black Oaklanders have lived through the Riders scandal, the Celeste Guap scandal, repeated misconduct scandals, racial profiling, excessive force, and decades of OPD violence. A new chief does not erase that history. Ending federal oversight does not erase that history. The only thing that will make Black residents safer is reducing our contact with police and investing in community-led systems of care.

JR Valrey: How has Barbara Lee’s administration dealt with people in homeless encampments versus the last mayor’s administration? Has there been a difference?

Lance Wilson: There has been some difference in rhetoric. Mayor Lee has talked about wanting fewer sweeps and more city workers cleaning up trash and waste around encampments, which is a different tone from the more punitive approaches we have seen across the region. Reporting in February said she was considering a shift toward fewer sweeps and paying unhoused residents to help with cleanup.

But rhetoric is not enough. The lived experience of unhoused people is what matters. Oakland still passed a controversial policy easing restrictions on encampment sweeps, and advocates warned that it would criminalize homelessness and displace people without creating real housing solutions. KQED reported that encampment closures skyrocketed from 240 closures in 2024 to 1,212 closures in 2025 after the Grants Pass decision, and advocates raised concerns that there were not enough shelter options available.

So the question we are asking is simple: Are unhoused people actually safer, housed, and cared for, or are they just being moved from block to block? If people are still being swept, displaced, surveilled, and exposed to police contact without permanent housing, then we are still criminalizing poverty.

From an abolitionist perspective, homelessness is not a police problem. It is a housing problem. It is a healthcare problem. It is an economic justice problem. And no administration should treat people living outside as a nuisance to be managed instead of human beings who deserve dignity, resources, and a real place to live.

JR Valrey: In your opinion, how are Black homeless people viewed in Oakland by the police and local government?

Lance Wilson: Black unhoused people in Oakland are too often treated as problems to be managed, moved, surveilled or disappeared from public view instead of as human beings who deserve housing, care, dignity and safety. That is the heart of the issue. When local government talks about encampments, the conversation is usually about “abatement,” “clean up,” “enforcement” or “public nuisance.” Very rarely is the conversation rooted in the fact that these are our neighbors, our elders, our young people, our disabled folks, our veterans, our families, and our community members who have been failed by every system that was supposed to protect them.

For Black unhoused people, that criminalization is even more dangerous because they are already overpoliced simply for existing in public. Police often see Black homelessness through the lens of suspicion and control. Instead of asking, “What does this person need?” the system asks, “How do we remove them?” That leads to sweeps, citations, arrests, stolen belongings, surveillance and violent encounters with law enforcement. From an abolitionist perspective, homelessness is not a crime. Poverty is not a crime. Mental health crisis is not a crime.

Being Black and unhoused in Oakland should not make you a target for police contact.

And what we saw with this recent killing raises exactly those concerns. Why were CHP and OPD interacting with someone near an unhoused encampment? Was this person in crisis? Was any non-police crisis response called? Was MACRO called? Was there any attempt to meet this person with care instead of force? Those are the questions we need answered because when the state responds to poverty, crisis and homelessness with armed police, people die.

JR Valrey: If people would like to stay informed on police murders and terrorism in Oakland, how could they do that?

Lance Wilson: People should stay connected to the organizations that are doing this work on the ground every day. Follow the Anti-Police Terror Project on social media, sign up for our email list, come to our general meetings, and pay attention when we issue action alerts, statements, press conferences and calls to show up. We organize around police killings, state violence, surveillance, budget fights, mental health crisis response, and the broader fight to build real public safety beyond policing.

People can also support directly impacted families by showing up when families call for community support, attending rallies and press conferences, making public comment, contacting elected officials, and refusing to let police departments control the narrative after they kill someone. Police rely on silence. They rely on confusion. They rely on the public moving on before the truth comes out. Our job is to stay organized, stay informed, and stay in the streets when our people are harmed.

The best way to stay connected is to follow @antipoliceterrorproject, visit antipoliceterrorproject.org and join our organizing spaces. This work requires all of us. If we want to end police terror in Oakland, we cannot just watch the news. We have to build power, demand answers, and fight for care, not cops.

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 23 years of oversight ends and Oakland Police are still killing people. appeared first on San Francisco Bay View.

Surprise. Two surveillance data centers are planned to be built in “the industrial area” within Bayview Hunters Point.

In terms of the Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood, which contains the largest concentration of Black residents in San Francisco, residents have been fighting for the Navy to clean up the radioactive pollution that they buried under the community in the late ‘40s and ‘50s, after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in World War II.

Radioactive waste from the ships, the equipment, the labs, the lab animals, are still buried near where people survive and raise their families, because that Black community is still being used as lab rats by the US government, so that the effects of people living in a radioactive environment can be studied on a long-term basis, as well as generationally.

“We are seeing data centers pop up near residential communities all across the United States, and we have seen the impacts, from polluting the water supply, to the noise these facilities bring to the neighborhoods closest to them. We are aware of the two (surveillance data centers) coming to the Bayview and Vis Valley border, and there was no community input on either one,” said San Francisco’s District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton.

Many regions are winning moratoriums against surveillance data centers being built near their communities, because of the light pollution, noise pollution, thermal pollution, water pollution and air pollution, among other hazards that they create.

It also has been heavily reported that the pollution caused by surveillance data centers completely disrupts eco-systems, causing insects, birds, and other wildlife to leave and avoid the areas that surveillance data centers inhabit.

Surveillance data centers produce artificial EMF fields that scientists report are disrupting the magnetic navigation system of bees.

Furthermore, surveillance data centers create artificial heat, creating heat stress in bees. in which a fractionally small increase in heat reduces sperm viability in male bees. What will it do in the young men living in close proximity to these surveillance data centers?

The constant hum of low frequencies, originating from the operation of surveillance data centers, is inaudible to the human ear but can be heard by animals.

Farmers are reporting that the stress created from the sounds of nearby surveillance data facilities have caused cattle to lose 30% of their weight and created an astronomical number of stillbirths in livestock. While Western science depends so heavily on tests carried out on animals before a questionable product can be put on the market, shouldn’t these be considered animal trials?

Additionally, according to reports, AI surveillance data centers are projected to use up more fresh water than what every human on earth drinks, by 2027.

“The Novva data center at 400 Paul Ave. went through Planning (The Planning Commission) back in 2016, long before most residents even knew it was happening. And the proposal at the Cow Palace sits in Daly City, under the control of the 1-A District Agricultural Association, a state board appointed by the governor,” explained Supervisor Walton.

Half of the surveillance data centers being proposed nationally have been delayed or canceled. In Maine, the state legislature passed a moratorium on building surveillance data centers, and Gov. Janet Mills vetoed it.

It has also been reported that in Henrico County, Virginia, tech companies have built 37 surveillance data centers, and are scheduled to build more. On June 26, 2026, the county manager emailed thousands of employees, including the staff at schools. His memo read that the electricity rate is jumping by 25%, costing residents $5 million more by July 1, days after the memo was written.

“These two centers raise serious concerns for our neighborhoods. District 10 has carried more than its share of industrial burden for this city, and I am looking into legislation on this issue. My office has reached out to officials in Daly City and San Mateo County about the Cow Palace proposal, since that decision sits outside our jurisdiction but still affects our neighbors directly,” said Supervisor Walton.

For more information, please watch: “We Went to the Town Elon Musk Is Poisoning,” at

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

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by Carol Harvey and James Pepper

It is widely believed that Treasure Island was built for a world’s fair. This is a misguided idea advanced by San Francisco that illustrates the city’s supreme skill at self-promotion and the Navy’s skill at concealing the truth.

San Francisco is great at comebacks. In previous years, the city suffered two cataclysmic shocks. At 5:12 a.m. on April 18, 1906, the deadliest earthquake in U.S. history, nearly 8.0 on the Richter scale, struck the city. An estimated 3,000 people died. As buildings collapsed, ruptured gas lines ignited fires that left the city in ruins. Rapid rebuilding was followed by a victorious 1915 world’s fair. The Panama-Pacific Exposition memorialized the city’s speedy recovery from the quake.

The City pulled off a second glorious return. During the 1929 stock market crash, banks failed right and left, but not one of San Francisco’s banks collapsed. The City solidified its reputation as a national financial center at the very height of the Great Depression. It was decided to celebrate by building two bridges. They would be the largest in the world. Bay Bridge construction began July 8, 1933, and the bridge opened three years later on Nov. 12, 1936. Golden Gate Bridge construction started Jan. 5, 1933, and it opened four years later on May 27, 1937.

In the 1930s, before the concept of another world’s fair was a gleam in anyone’s eye, because the city was known as a major West Coast hub, the federal government decided to build an artificial island for a federal airport in San Francisco Bay. In 1933, the government requested that the Army Corps of Engineers begin construction. This Works Progress Administration (WPA) undertaking was intended to provide employment during the Great Depression.

The United States government paid for Treasure Island. On May 27, 1943, a hearing about Treasure Island was held by the Committee on Naval Affairs in the Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C. According to a statement by Rear Admiral Ben Moreell, Chief of the Bureau of Yards and Docks, now known as Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC), a key branch of the United States Navy, the island was paid for with federal funds furnished by the Public Works Administration and the WPA. The document at the accompanying link describes the decision to build Treasure Island as an airport, and it specifies how much the federal government would pay.

Later, the state of California and San Francisco tried to lay claim to Treasure Island, but the federal government said, “No, we paid for it. It belongs to us, and, in addition, the Bay is federal waters.”

After Treasure Island slowly emerged from San Francisco Bay, the Navy constructed Buildings One, Two, and Three for use as hangars. The photograph below shows the three hangars in place in 1938 before the Golden Gate International Exposition structures were erected. Building One’s echoing rotunda has a terminal’s vaulted ceiling. Building Two on Clipper Cove was the landing place for Pan American Airways China Clipper seaplanes, the “flying boats” popular at the time. Building Three housed aircraft.

The new island was located centrally in the Bay Area, making it perfect for an administrative naval base and an air station for China Clippers.

Before the Navy laid claim to Treasure Island, the city opened the Golden Gate International Exposition to great fanfare on Feb. 18, 1939.

GGIE was the advertisement juggernaut of the century. It was a glitzy carnival that lasted 372 days throughout 1939 and 1940. Richard Reinhardt, in his book “Treasure Island: San Francisco’s Exposition Years,” called it “a bower of bliss,” the “capsule of my dreams.” As a boy, he was continually drawn to the island by its exciting events. It attracted strange and familiar notables like the Maharajah of Kapurthala, Presidents Roosevelt and Herbert Hoover, and entertainers like Esther Williams and Edgar Bergen with his puppet, Charlie McCarthy, in hand.

After the spectacle ended, the U.S. Navy followed through with the original plan to take Treasure Island for an airport.

During this time, the United States was being drawn into the Second World War. In preparation for the conflict, on Dec. 29, 1939, the Navy purchased Hunters Point Shipyard and turned it into a naval base. The U.S. officially entered World War II on Dec. 8, 1941. On April 17, 1942, the former site of the Golden Gate International Exposition officially became Naval Station Treasure Island.

Three years later, in 1945, the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. The Navy decided to use Treasure Island for schools to teach sailors how to handle the new nuclear firepower. Between 1944 and 1997, the Navy cycled an estimated 400,000 sailors through Treasure Island. Many attended “academies” the Navy set up for instruction in how to handle the new, incredibly powerful radioactive and chemical weapons. As a result, deadly toxins stored in these schools were dumped into the soil and groundwater and remain there, continuing to move up and outward into the air.

Before the war, the Navy built a runway diagonally across Treasure Island. It ran from the southwest shore opposite Angel Island in a northeasterly direction toward a pier on the Berkeley side of the island facing the Bay Bridge. The Navy conducted chemical, biological and radiological (CBR) warfare training along the airstrip.

In time, the Navy suggested that San Francisco make Treasure Island its civilian airport. This never came to fruition. In 1944, a seaplane (perhaps one of Pan Am’s Clipper ships) that was trying to land on the runway collided with a ship on the south side of the Bay Bridge. This caused concern that planes would hit the bridge. Therefore, it was decided that Treasure Island was not large enough for an airport.

In 1947, a congressional hearing conducted in San Francisco officially vetoed the proposal. The Navy wanted Treasure Island for a base. So, the military airport at Mills Field, 12 miles away in San Mateo County, was exchanged for Treasure Island and given to the City and County of San Francisco. It was named San Francisco International Airport (SFO). (SF means San Francisco. The signifier “O” is the last letter in Francisco.) SFO was meant to serve the entire Bay Area.

Not only did the Navy dump radioactive material and chemical weapons into Treasure Island soil, but from 1941 to 1965, the Navy deposited its garbage as far as possible from Navy headquarters, which was located at the southeast end of the island. On the northwest end, facing the Golden Gate Bridge, refuse and incinerated solid waste were spread over 93 acres in an enormous open field. In burn pits and a huge beehive incinerator, everything imaginable was set on fire — wires, machinery parts, even radioactive objects. Burning reduced this trash to its lethal chemical components. During the 1940s, San Franciscans complained about thick black smoke wafting over from Treasure Island and blanketing the city. In response, the incinerator was taken down.

In 1965, the Navy hired Actus Sundt Construction Co. to build 150 townhouses on the polluted soil for a residential community of 2,000 sailors and their families. Instead of first cleaning the radioactive and chemical contaminants out of the dirt, Navy Seabee tractors graded the soil, pushing the chemicalized garbage around this enormous dump. Then townhouses were built on concrete slabs. Perhaps the Navy thought a layer of cement would shield the residents from radioactive objects and waste beneath their homes. It is unlikely. The most common radioisotope polluting Treasure Island soil is radium-226, and it has a half-life of 1,600 years.

Despite all this, the views from Treasure Island townhouses were (and still are) spectacular.

In the late 1980s, Congress decided naval bases were too expensive and began shutting them down.

At that time, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) mandated cleanup of all bases. The U.S. Navy’s remediation of radiation and chemicals from Treasure Island began in 1999, yet remains uncompleted after 27 years.

In 1997, the Navy decommissioned its Treasure Island base. The decision was made to solve San Francisco’s never-ending homeless problem by transporting people from the City’s mean streets to subsidized former Navy townhouses with programs for people with mental health issues and drug addictions. Not one of these poor white — but mostly melanated — mothers with children (like Sammy Johnson, who died of brain cancer) was informed that Treasure Island was radioactive and chemically contaminated and that the base was a chemical warfare training center where the Navy stored and used weapons like mustard and sarin nerve gas. These chemical weapons are the most dangerous toxins in existence and far more damaging than radiation to human health.

The Navy told the residents it was safe for them to live five or 10 feet from radiation cleanup zones. When a series of investigative news reports proved otherwise, the residents became angry and upset and demanded the Navy come clean about the danger.

How history repeats itself! Just as in the past with the 400,000 sailors and low-market-rate and homeless San Franciscans, not one of the prospective residents currently buying into Treasure and Yerba Buena Islands’ glitzy high-rises and condos on the redeveloped islands is informed about the radioactive and chemical contamination the Navy can never completely clean out of the soil, groundwater and air.

But that’s a story for another day.

Credit: Thanks to researcher James Pepper, whose contributions to this article are invaluable.

Carol Harvey and James Pepper are investigative journalists. Harvey, a San Francisco political journalist specializing in human rights and civil rights, can be reached at carolharvey1111@gmail.com.   

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by Pearci “PJ” Bastiany III

In August 2025, SF Bay View published “Rotting from the coast in: Sea Scouts displaced, waterfront in decline,” an article documenting how the Sea Scouts were pushed off their historic waterfront base and how visible deterioration along San Francisco’s shoreline was being met with delay, bureaucratic deflection, and piecemeal action. That article was never just about one dock. It was about a larger pattern: San Francisco keeps allowing working-waterfront infrastructure to decay until removal becomes easier than repair.

After that article was published, its findings were brought directly to the Port of San Francisco Commission during public comment. Some visible work did appear to follow elsewhere on the waterfront, including attention to dilapidated pilings near Chase Center and repair activity near Fisherman’s Wharf, but the broader set of deteriorating sites that had been documented were not fully addressed. The deeper issue remained untouched: the city still has not shown that it is serious about preserving public-serving maritime infrastructure before access is lost.

Now that same pattern is playing out at Gashouse Cove. What happened to the Sea Scouts at Aquatic Park and what is happening now at Gashouse Cove are connected parts of the same story: a working waterfront asset is treated as expendable even when youth programs, everyday boaters, emergency responders, and blue-collar maritime users still rely on it.

Captain Maggie Hallahan, a licensed Coast Guard captain and Sea Scout leader, has become one of the clearest public voices in the fight to preserve the cove as a public access site to the water and as an emergency response center. In a recent Latitude 38 podcast focused on Gashouse Cove, Hallahan joined youth Sea Scouts Wrenn Holloway and Pismono Mata-Lee to explain what is at stake there, what the Sea Scouts have been doing to fight for access, and why the site still matters to the broader boating community. Hallahan said the Sea Scouts have spoken before the California State Lands Commission, the Port of San Francisco, San Francisco Recreation and Park, the Board of Supervisors, the California Water Board, and the Harbor Safety Committee of the San Francisco Bay Region in an effort to preserve the site.

That matters because this is no longer a niche marina dispute. It is an ongoing public fight taking place across multiple agencies, with the Sea Scouts arguing that waterfront access, youth opportunity, emergency readiness, and public-trust maritime uses are all being pushed aside by a redesign that does not reflect how the cove is actually used.

The Sea Scouts’ case is not based on sentiment alone. In the podcast, Hallahan said the city is relying on a permit from 19 years ago to repair Gashouse Cove and is now using that same permit to justify decommissioning the fuel dock rather than repairing and preserving it. She also argued that the fuel dock can remain operational during cleanup because it sits about 167 meters from the active cleanup area and still has enough depth for many vessels to fuel there, even at low tide. Those are not emotional claims. They are substantive disputes about design, access, and whether city agencies are choosing removal over practical preservation.

The June 17, 2026 Harbor Safety Committee letter to BCDC strengthens that argument in a major way. The Committee said it supports environmental remediation within East Harbor, but stressed that environmental remediation and preservation of critical maritime infrastructure can occur at the same time. The letter warned that the proposed removal of the Gashouse Cove gasoline and diesel fuel dock raises concerns about emergency preparedness, navigation safety, maritime resiliency, and public access to San Francisco Bay, and said those concerns were supported by materials reviewed by the Committee and discussions with emergency responders, marina operators, San Francisco Bar Pilots, and maritime stakeholders.

That letter matters because it moves the issue beyond advocacy alone. It shows that a formal maritime safety body sees Gashouse Cove as infrastructure with real operational value, not a leftover waterfront feature. According to the Committee, the San Francisco Police Department Marine Unit confirmed that SFPD, the San Francisco Fire Department, and the United States Coast Guard all use the Gashouse Cove fuel dock for emergency response operations, vessel boardings, medical evacuations, and other public-safety missions on the Bay. The Committee also noted that the Bay Area continues to lose publicly accessible marine fuel facilities, especially gasoline fueling infrastructure.

The Harbor Safety Committee also makes clear that replacement options are not simple. The letter says the San Francisco Bar Pilots rely on marine fuel access near the Golden Gate Bridge to fulfill their statutory and regulatory responsibilities and maintain operational readiness. It explains that sedimentation and lack of dredging can make the Clipper Yacht Harbor fuel dock in Sausalito effectively unnavigable during low tides, while East Bay fuel facilities are too far away to support emergency response and operational needs in the Central Bay and Golden Gate Bridge area. In other words, Gashouse Cove is not easily replaceable by simply pointing to another dock on a map.

The Committee also directly addresses the likely argument that remediation and continued dock operations cannot safely coexist. It points to recent remediation work near SF Pier 41 1/2, where ferry operators continued service within approximately 10 meters of active remediation areas. According to the letter, that project demonstrated that environmental remediation and maritime operations can safely coexist when proper environmental and operational controls are used. The Committee specifically notes that projects commonly use perimeter float containment systems, turbidity barriers, and phased construction methods to maintain maritime operations during remediation.

That is a critical point because it shifts the public debate. The question is no longer whether cleanup should happen. The Committee itself supports cleanup. The question is whether Rec and Park is choosing the most restrictive and destructive version of the project instead of a balanced one that preserves working-waterfront functions.

The letter is also skeptical of the city’s cost and feasibility case. According to the Committee, members heard two primary concerns from San Francisco Recreation and Park Department staff about keeping the fuel dock operational during remediation: crowding within the work area and increased project costs. But the Committee also noted that SFRPD included approximately $25 million in its estimate for dredging a 145-foot-wide access channel to the fuel dock and engineered cap, even though the fuel dock currently operates without dredging and has remained functional for 38 years. The Committee concluded that SFRPD did not establish to its satisfaction that continued operation of the fuel dock during remediation would be infeasible, and added that information it reviewed, including discussions with Regional Water Quality Control Board staff, indicated the city could keep the existing dock operational during remediation while still meeting environmental protection requirements.

That is potentially the most important argument in the entire debate. If continued operation is possible, then closure is not simply an unavoidable side effect of cleanup. It is a policy choice.

The Harbor Safety Committee asked BCDC to exercise its oversight authority over waterfront redevelopment, marina modifications, changes to water-dependent uses, and Bay Plan policies by rejecting the San Francisco Marina plans in their current form. Its reason was direct: the current proposal does not preserve essential maritime infrastructure and public-trust maritime uses. The letter specifically says the proposal fails to preserve marine fuel access, continued operation of the only public boat lift in San Francisco, continued operation of the only touch-and-go dock in northern San Francisco, blue-collar boating access, and dedicated areas supporting maritime safety training and youth maritime education. That language should be at the center of this public debate, because it shows exactly what would be lost.

The Committee’s second-page request is just as important. It asked BCDC to carefully evaluate the maritime safety and resiliency impacts associated with permanently removing the Gashouse Cove fuel dock and to determine whether continued operation during portions of the remediation process, or preservation of equivalent centrally located fuel access, would better support the Bay’s public-trust and maritime uses. That is not an anti-cleanup position. It is a call for a real safety and resiliency analysis before a permanent loss is locked in.

The Sea Scouts have also raised a water-quality concern that deserves far more public attention. Hallahan and the youth advocates said the Laguna outfall sits adjacent to the site and drains into the area proposed for kayaking and paddleboarding, which raises obvious questions about whether the city’s recreation plan matches the actual conditions on the water. Public materials on the Laguna Street outfall and community letters opposing the redesign reinforce that the outfall is a real feature of the site and not a hypothetical talking point. If people are going to be encouraged to paddle there, then the city owes the public a direct and transparent answer about what exactly is entering that water and whether the site is truly fit for that kind of recreation.

The emergency-response case may be even more compelling. In the podcast, Hallahan and the Sea Scouts said police, sheriff, and fire vessels rely on the fuel dock and warned that there is no equivalent fuel point in San Francisco that can easily replace it. The show notes for the episode also describe the cove as the city’s last remaining marine fuel dock for recreational use, while noting its use by police, sheriff, and fire department vessels. The Harbor Safety Committee letter reinforces the same basic point from an institutional standpoint: the dock is used for emergency response, medical evacuations, and other public-safety missions, and its loss would affect maritime readiness.

That claim took on greater weight after the recent Alcatraz boating tragedy. During the July emergency, reports showed that Gashouse Cove served as a triage and evacuation point for rescued passengers, and other reporting indicated that the fuel dock played a role in supporting the emergency response. The proximity of Gashouse Cove to the tragedy made it ideal for emergency evacuation and rapid refueling of emergency vessels, which is exactly why treating the site as expendable is such a dangerous mistake. The Harbor Safety Committee’s warnings about emergency preparedness and centrally located fuel access look even more credible in light of that tragedy.

This is the point city decision-makers should not be allowed to dodge. Gashouse Cove is not spare waterfront real estate. It is part of the city’s marine response network, and recent events showed that clearly. Once a site like that is removed, its function is not easily recreated somewhere else, especially in a dense city with limited shoreline access and increasing strain on public infrastructure.

The podcast also makes another point that planning documents often miss: access to the Bay is already shrinking. Hallahan described a past waterfront culture in which public docks and informal boating communities made it easier for ordinary people to get on the water, while the youth voices in the podcast described Sea Scouts as one of the few affordable, welcoming ways left for young people to learn maritime skills in San Francisco. Wrenn Holloway described Sea Scouts as a place to build friendships and community, while the group discussed weekly outings, regattas, Delta cruises, whale reporting, and the SSS Viking’s recent national flagship award. That is not just nostalgia. It is evidence that Gashouse Cove and programs like Sea Scouts still create living public value.

That public value also matters because access to the Bay has become uneven. Yacht clubs and private slips remain available for those who can afford them, but the podcast makes clear that Sea Scouts and informal public boating access offer something different: a lower-cost, community-based path into maritime life. When the city removes places like Gashouse Cove without preserving their working public function, it is not expanding access. It is narrowing it.

San Francisco should not repeat with Gashouse Cove what it already allowed to happen with the Sea Scouts’ former dock. The city should preserve the site, clean what needs to be cleaned, repair what needs to be repaired, and keep Gashouse Cove functioning as a real public-serving maritime asset. If the city truly believes in resilience, access, environmental justice, and emergency preparedness, then saving Gashouse Cove is the test.

A working waterfront cannot be rebuilt by press release after it is gone. Gashouse Cove should remain open not just for boaters, but for the next emergency, the next evacuation, and the next young person who still deserves a real way onto the Bay.

The post Save gashouse cove before San Francisco loses another working waterfront appeared first on San Francisco Bay View.

by Kiilu Nyasha

“As a slave, the social phenomenon that engages my consciousness is, of course, revolution.” – George L. Jackson

The revision of Black August

2013* marks the 43rd anniversary of Black August, first organized to honor our fallen freedom fighters, George and Jonathan Jackson, James McClain, William Christmas, Khatari Gaulden and sole survivor of the Aug. 7, 1970, Courthouse Slave Rebellion, Ruchell Cinque Magee.

During these four decades, we’ve witnessed a steady revision of the meaning of Black August and its inherent ideology, the undisputed leader of which was our martyred comrade, George Lester Jackson.

Sadly, lots of individuals – many of whom are straight-up Black capitalists and Black nationalists – have seized upon Black August as a means of profiteering and lime-lighting, self-aggrandizement and promotion of their own agendas. For those reasons, I want to make very clear the ideology espoused by George and Jonathan Jackson and their comrades.

First of all, George was unequivocally an internationalist and a socialist. He despised racism and, along with his brother, Jonathan, eschewed cultural nationalism.

For example, in George Jackson’s second book, “Blood in My Eye,” published posthumously in 1972, Jonathan Jackson, 17, was quoted a­­­­s follows:

“They say Gloves Davis – a Black pig – killed Fred Hampton, while he was asleep. I certainly don’t have to mention all the so-called defectors who are now [1970] appearing before government committees testifying for the state. They were infiltrators to begin with. The house-niggers who ran to the high sheriff as soon as someone whispered revolt. I think I hate them worse than I hate the sheriff, or the ‘owner.’

“I’m just a young slave … but every time I think of [Gloves] Davis, Jess B. Simple, Karenga and the rest of these murderous turncoat idiots, my trigger finger fairly itches! Non-persons like Karenga, LeRoi Jones [Amiri Baraka] and the other right-wing Blacks are intelligent enough to know what they are doing. We cannot excuse them with the ease that we can excuse the average brother who has had no opportunity or inclination to search.

“The mantle of ignorance doesn’t cover their behavior. They have to know that when they attack socialism, the communist ideal, and revolution that they are not logically … attacking all that is white, etc. They know that Ho Chi Minh isn’t white or Chairman Mao, or Nkrumah, Lumumba and Toure.

“They know that there isn’t but one fight going on across this planet, the one between the imperialist forces of capitalism and its victims. They know that it was for work that we were kidnapped – what else do you feed a slave for?

“These Black, Black, Black, Black men (if you can swallow their shallow shit) have had time to study, some have traveled, they ‘know’ that it was capitalist agricultural economics that first caused our pain, and that the only change since then is the decline of the agricultural elite and the rise of the modern bourgeoisie. A sweat-shop displaced the plantation. [In 2013, it’s the prison industrial complex and outsourcing.] Could it have escaped their notice that all the African states that really liberated themselves booted out the foreign businessmen and are now socialist states? [Unfortunately, the ‘foreign businessmen’ returned and there are no African states that remained socialist.]

“No, I think the strongest suggestion is that they are working for the government, the new house-niggers. And what better way is there for them to sell themselves to us than to scream Black, Black, Black, Black ….”

George Jackson wrote: “We find ourselves forced into a reexamination of the whole nature of Black revolutionary consciousness and its relative standing within a class society steeped in a form of racism so sensitized that it extends itself even to the slightest variation in skin tone.

“The great majority of Blacks reject racism. They have never found it expedient, wise or honorable to take on the characteristics of the enemy” (“Blood in My Eye”).

I wish that statement remained true. But I think Comrade is turning over in his grave at the anti-white hostility and white exclusion so common today. We are now witnessing Blacks embracing reactionary politicians, like Barack Obama, because of their skin tones.

In his first best seller of 1970, “Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George Jackson,” Comrade wrote: “The government buys and trains these running dogs very carefully, and sends them scrambling, tails and all, outward to represent the establishment. Whole kennels are sent to the African nations … on the supposition that the people of these nations will be able to relate better to a Black face.” George goes on to say that they throw up “one more barrier to the communion that we must establish with the other oppressed peoples of the world.”

In a letter written to a comrade, published in “Blood in My Eye,” George wrote: “We have finally arrived at scientific revolutionary socialism … I was hoping that you wouldn’t get trapped in the riot stage like a great many other very sincere brothers … They think they don’t need ideology, strategy or tactics. They think being a warrior is enough.”

“You must teach that socialism-communalism is as old as man; that its principles formed the basis of mostly all the East African cultures (there was no word to denote possession in the original East African tongues) …

“Any Black who would defend an African military dictatorship is as much a fascist as Hoover. Are you aware of how the people are living under these so-called Africanized fascist cultures? The Congo and the entire West Coast of Africa … are still slave states, dominated by Westernized Black right-wing puppets.

“I’m thoroughly sick of the old Jess B. Simples (young ones too). They’ll be your main source of opposition in communizing the Black colonies here. The ‘good white people’ who own things will always give them a few inches in their papers or other media. That’s how ‘fascism’ works, influencing the masses and institutions through elites.”

The origin of Black August

A time to embrace the principles of unity and resistance, Black August had its origins in the “Black Movement” behind California prison walls in the 1960s, led by George Jackson, W.L. Nolen, James Carr, Hugo Pinell, Kumasi, Howard Tole, Warren Wells and many other conscious, standup brothers who ultimately made it safe for Blacks to walk the yards of California’s racist gulags.

As the decades passed, the tradition of honoring our fallen freedom fighters – sparked by the August events described below – was expanded to include commemorating revolutionary wars of resistance and self-determination, such as Harriett Tubman’s Underground Railroad and the Haitian Revolution of August 1791, culminating in the first Black republic of the world.

Aug. 7, 1970, the spectacular Courthouse Slave Rebellion hit the front pages of newspapers around the world. Pictures of four young Black freedom fighters emerging from the Marin County Courthouse with guns and hostages provoked panic among white supremacists. But most Black folks took great pride and inspiration from the sight of such courageous resistance to the ongoing brutality and murder of Blacks inside and outside of prison.

“Freeze!” shouted 17-year-old Jonathan Jackson, “We’re taking over,” as he tossed guns to McClain, Christmas and Magee. With courage and calm they ushered their hostages to a waiting van, planning to go to a radio station to broadcast the atrocities being committed behind the walls against Blacks and demand the immediate release of the Soledad Brothers – George Jackson, Fleeta Drumgo and John Clutchette.

What Jonathan failed to anticipate was the state’s willingness to sacrifice one of its judges and the lives of everyone else to stop that escape. As Jonathan tried to leave the parking lot, the San Quentin guards arrived and opened fire, leaving Jackson, Christmas, McClain and Judge Harold Haley dead, state prosecutor Gary Thomas and Ruchell Magee seriously wounded, and one juror with a minor injury.

One year later, on Aug. 21, 1971, in what has been well established as a setup, George Jackson was murdered on the yard of San Quentin by prison guards.

During this orchestrated attempted escape, however, three guards were also killed, along with two inmate “trustees.” This set the prison officials on fire and they’ve been exacting revenge ever since upon Hugo Pinell (known affectionately as Yogi) whom they can’t seem to torture enough – even though he was not convicted of murder in the case, as was Johnny Spain, who was released in 1988.

Yogi, now 69 years old, is suffering his 49th year of incarceration, most in solitary confinement, the last 23 in Pelican Bay’s SHU (Security Housing Unit), locked down at least 23 hours a day in a torture chamber – no-contact limited visits, no phone calls, no windows, restricted property. Fortunately, Magee’s legal expertise got him out of the SHU in 1994.

Yogi’s current attorney, Keith Wattley of Uncommon Law, is trying to preclude a 15-year hit at Yogi’s next board hearing Oct. 22 and needs all the help he can get to proceed in Yogi’s behalf. For more information, go to www.hugopinell.org.

Ruchell Magee is enduring his 50th year in Corcoran’s maximum security prison – a classic case of this country’s racist repression of Black men.

At 16, Magee was arrested, tried as an adult and incarcerated in the infamous Angola State Prison in his home state of Louisiana – basically for associating with a white girl. Released after eight years but banished from the state, Magee lasted only six months in Los Angeles before suffering an egregious and brutal encounter with L.A. police – over a $10 bag of weed – that put him back in prison in 1963.

An astute jailhouse lawyer, Magee continued to fight his case through the courts for seven years to no avail or until he seized the hour and joined the guerrillas on Aug. 7, 1970. Seriously wounded but still alive, Magee was subsequently tortured and charged with everything they could throw at him. He continues to fight his case to this day. He said to me decades ago, “As long as you remain in the fight, you never know who’s going to win.”

“So what is to be done after a revolution has failed?” asks George. After our enemies have created a conservative mass society based on meaningless electoral politics, spectator sports and a 3 percent annual rise in purchasing power strictly regulated to negate itself with a corresponding rise in the cost of living, what can we do with a people who have gone through the authoritarian process and come out sick to the core?

“Our overall task is to separate the people from the hated state. They must be made to realize that the interests of the state and the ruling class are one and the same. They must be taught to realize that the present political regime exists only to balance the productive forces within the society in favor of the ruling class. It is at the ruling class and the governing elites, including those of labor, that we must aim our bolts” (“Blood in My Eye”).

“We must accept the spirit of the true internationalism called for by Comrade Che Guevara … We need allies, we have a powerful enemy who cannot be defeated without an allied effort! The enemy at present is the capitalist system and its supporters. Our prime interest is to destroy them. Anyone else with this same interest must be embraced, we must work with, beside, through, over, under anyone, regardless of his or her external physical features, whose aim is the same as ours in this” (“Soledad Brother”).

“Settle your quarrels, come together, understand the reality of our situation, understand that fascism is already here, that people are dying who could be saved, that generations more will live poor butchered half-lives if you fail to act. Do what must be done; discover your humanity and your love in revolution” (“Blood in My Eye”).

*This story was originally published on July 31, 2013, at https://sfbayview.com/2013/07/the-revision-and-origin-of-black-august/.

Kiilu Nyasha, Black Panther veteran and revolutionary journalist, joined the ancestors April 10, 2018, at age 78. A tiny woman with mighty influence, every day she practiced the activism she preached. She’d hear of a protest too late to schedule a ride on Paratransit and simply take off in her motorized wheelchair, weaving from her Chinatown apartment through the snarls of San Francisco traffic, composing her speech on the fly. Bold and brave, she feared nothing and no one, daring the powerful to debate her and leaving them exhausted in the dust. Kiilu’s face and voice are all over the internet. Visit her often, starting here: The Official Website of Kiilu Nyasha.

The post The revision and origin of Black August appeared first on San Francisco Bay View.

When Tulsi Gabbard stepped down as President Donald Trump’s director of national intelligence on June 18, 2026, she made it clear that she did not intend to fade quietly into the background.

Her skepticism about COVID-19 was evident when she served in the White House. With that at the forefront, she planned a mic-drop moment as a departure: At her directive, officials released roughly 400 pages of intelligence documents, including internal records concerning COVID-19’s origins, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and Dr. Anthony Fauci.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence simultaneously released a video in which Gabbard summarized her conclusions. Elon Musk and Rand Paul were among those publicly applauding her courage. Mainstream media made a concerted effort to ignore her altogether.

Asking Fauci

Wednesday, July 28th, Paul and others had their long-awaited day in court with the famous doctor. With Fauci’s private diary in hand, they fired over 100 questions at a composed and smiling Fauci. In response, Dr. Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment rights over 100 times. It was theater, of course, lest we forget Joe Biden ​preemptively pardoned Fauci on Jan. 19, 2025, to guard against “unjustified and politically motivated prosecutions” for allegations related to COVID-19, or his role in the response.

Independent thinkers may wonder what it is all for, if not disclosure and justice?

2020

Flash back to 2020, to an epic battle between blue and red. Some trusted science; others deemed the science unresolved.

Then there were Black folks like myself.

I’m talking about those of us who were uncomfortable jumping blindly into a targeted program created to inject government-mandated “vaccines” into the arms of Black America just because a CEO dressed as a philanthropist said so.

Through our lens, it seemed pretty stupid to even consider a biotechnological “jab” pushed by agencies that had “disproportionately” approved or promoted cigarettes, alcohol, genetically modified organisms, aspartame, school lunches indistinguishable from prison lunches, and poisoned water in our “underserved” neighborhoods every day of our “underserved” lives.

Bill Gates put COVID testing pop-ups in every hood “disproportionately” affected by COVID. He could just as easily have dropped off computers in those same hoods, where COVID mandates “disproportionately” affected children’s learning. His actions did not scream care and concern to me.

Back in 2020, science believers met Black resistance with aggressive accusations, insults and gaslighting. Then came the infamous “cancellation” for thinking outside the approved narrative.

People who claimed to be our allies while marching with us against police terrorism lost their newly “woke” minds when we explained that the big system everyone was protesting was the same system they were rushing to for jabs.

How meaningful the anti-racism protests six years ago were has yet to be seen. The possibilities weaken, however, when the same people who oppose “systemic” racism cannot see the system.

Those who fund the police also fund the Army, the Capitol Police and the COVAX initiative, which involved pharmaceutical companies, Dr. Fauci, the NIH, the CDC, the WHO, the U.N., the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Gavi and others. They all sit at the same table and walk through the same revolving door year after year. It does not matter what letters are assigned to the agency or sub-agency.

Despite all the attention liberal science believers gave in 2020 to amplify America’s overt injustices, especially the killing of unarmed Black people, they could not recognize that the COVID vaccine rollout in Black America might also be that — either inadvertently, through a lack of long-term testing, or purposefully, by tricking Black folks into becoming the long-term test.

All that cash

Our government had already committed similar deeds many times by the time the COVID vaccines were ripe and ready. With new power, these old players had corporate interests in medicine and were financially energizing modern motives to the point of disrespect. Spike Lee, Al Sharpton and Tyler Perry were vaccinated; go on and “Vax that thang up!”

Those agencies are who later paid rappers, church leaders and community activists from a $2 billion marketing budget created solely to “convince” us to take a shot.

Thanks for nothing

Tulsi’s dramatic reveal offered no more of a solution than the Epstein files, which were full of unspeakable crimes and met with exactly zero arrests. She offered no plan forward and no repair for people who were misled.

Her big conclusion was that the government and its agencies have a lying problem, at the least, and are actively trying to kill us, at the worst.

Who did not know that? Who needed more proof?

What they’re still ignoring

Here is what Tulsi left out: These government agencies have a medical history in Black communities that boasts an encyclopedic list of abuse.

After shock waves shut down the 40-year Tuskegee syphilis study, the Federal Office of Human Services — now known as the Department of Health and Human Services — also arrested no one. In fact, officials packed those doctors up to continue their work elsewhere.

Before that, there was J. Marion Sims, the so-called father of gynecology. The doctor, now honored with foundations and numerous monuments in his name and likeness, ran gynecological experiments on enslaved women and withheld pain medication to force compliance. He believed Black women did not feel pain the way white women did, so they did not need it.

Ironically, anyone who wants a commercial license for the infamous portrait of Sims and his colleagues contemplating an enslaved woman on her knees must ask Pfizer for permission.

Pfizer, the U.S. government’s co-collaborator. Pfizer, which has governmental immunity and cannot be held responsible for harms caused under contracts with that same government.

According to Violation Tracker, Pfizer has paid over $11 billion for violations ranging from kickbacks and bribery to environmental damage, election-law interference and whistleblower retaliation after an employee raised concerns about genetic engineering work. A pending lawsuit alleges that their drug and medical-device companies financed terrorism in Iraq.

Pfizer also conducted illegal drug testing in Nigeria, where 11 children died and others suffered blindness, deafness and brain damage. The company had no authorization to drug those children from either the government or their parents.

There are still hundreds of prestigious honors and awards in Marion Sims’ name. We can conclude that this is because the abuse of Black bodies means nothing to America. That history is not considered negative because the U.S. medical system gained from it — a system literally built from the blood of enslaved people to learn how to cure those deemed worthy of good medicine.

An earned mistrust

This is the same system whose NIH tested AIDS drugs on thousands of poor Black foster children without consent. Dr. Fauci himself had one hand on that project and the other on the HIV ladder he was climbing to success. This government impemented eugenics practices envied and duplicated by Nazi Germany. Its laws gave us 30 years of forced sterilization, biological weapon tests on uninformed citizens and diseased mosquitoes bred and released into Black communities. It created and promoted human zoos.

People should read the released files knowing this is only the latest abuse on a rap sheet hundreds of years in the making.

This is not just rebellion. The mistrust is well earned, caused by lies, sickness and murder by the same agencies we are told want us to be well.

Tulsi Gabbard’s belief in the significance of her findings feels a little like a white woman calling the police in a system that has always worked for her, without considering the effect cops have had on the people around her.

We have already been living in the land of medical mistreatment, unethical practices, careless research, lethal experiments, discrimination and neglect of essential medical needs

A simple conclusion

In 2020, Forbes reported that 1,000 Black men were killed every month by another Black man’s gun. Those numbers far surpassed COVID deaths in the Black community. Is that not a pandemic?

The CDC’s response to the murder rate in the Bay Area was that officials would have to get “tough on gun owners”. They can know when someone I met came in contact with COVID and text me the location of a test, followed by the location of a vaccine clinic — but we’re supposed to believe they do not have a clue who is running guns to kids in the hood?

No, thank you. Tulsi’s efforts are noted but not needed. Dr. Fauci can stay silent for all we care.

It does not have to be complicated. If those who govern in the name of the people’s greater good, health, and protection make it clear that they do not support the people’s greater good, health and protection, we will continue to take them at their word.

Leah Harmony is Manager of Production for the Bay View, a journalist, filmmaker and music video producer who has produced award-winning videos for artists such as Tyler, the Creator; Rihanna; Shakira; J.Lo; Drake; and many more. She can be reached at leah@sfbayview.com.

The post Dr. Fauci pleading the 5th and Tulsi Gabbard’s release of COVID files only confirms what Black America already knew appeared first on San Francisco Bay View.

by Laura Larkins

Denver – Plainclothes officers arrested Chantal Morales Rojas, a 27-year-old Ecuadorian woman, as she was boarding her Southwest Airlines flight from Denver to Oakland on the night of July 20.

Friends of Rojas, fellow passengers, and airline employees watched as immigration agents detained Rojas on the jetway before taking her by force to a Homeland Security van waiting on the tarmac.

The arrest comes amid a dramatic uptick in immigrant detentions, with ICE reporting some 43,000 arrests in June of this year. ICE’s presence at airports also appears to be increasing, with recent arrests at SFO and at LAX, where ICE agents reportedly left a Vietnamese man handcuffed.

Rojas was visiting friends and her former employer in Denver for an ultimate frisbee tournament. She went through the TSA Security checkpoint Monday evening without any issue.

Upon arrival at her gate for her flight to Oakland, a non-uniformed agent approached Rojas and asked if she could answer questions about her visa. Unaware that the man was an agent (he provided no identification), she said no.

Alicia Dantzker, along with an attorney, both from the Bay Area and friends of Rojas’ former employer who also attended the tournament, happened to be traveling on the same flight. Rojas explained to them that she felt threatened and had no idea who the man was or why he was asking her about her visa.

Within minutes, several other men, all in civilian clothing, arrived at the gate. The group stood by watching Rojas for the next 30 minutes. 

According to Dantzker, the men were visibly making Rojas feel uncomfortable. She suggested that they ask to board early; the Southwest gate agent agreed. The  attorney remained at the gate and waited to board the plane with her assigned group.

Dantzker says when she and Rojas scanned their boarding passes and stepped onto the jetway the scanning console sounded an alarm and the Southwest agent asked them to wait. It was then that the men who had been surveilling Rojas pushed both women into the jetway and the door slammed shut, effectively trapping them. It is unclear who shut the door. 

“They said, ‘We are going to be polite. We have a warrant for your arrest,” Dantzker recounted. “You have to come with us. We have a warrant. Do you want to see it?’”

Dantzker says she told the agents to show the warrant to her lawyer friend, by then standing on the other side of the door. That is also when she began to film the encounter. 

In the video, Rojas is seen being removed from the jetway and forced by several individuals out an exterior door. It is unclear if the individuals, including one woman, were agents, airport employees, or bystanders, though they appeared to be wearing all-access badges issued by airport authorities. 

A spokesperson for Denver Mayor Mike Johnson told a local news outlet after Rojas’ arrest that his office had not been informed of activity at the airport, adding the mayor does not have the legal authority to impede federal law enforcement at Denver International.

Officials with Denver International Airport released a statement noting that federal agents do have jurisdiction there and are “not required to inform the airport of their activity.”

Rojas was taken down the exterior stairway onto the tarmac and placed in a white van marked Homeland Security parked amongst the Southwest airlines baggage carts. The warrant was never shown to the attorney present, despite the request for agents to do so.

In the video, a federal agent confronts Dantzker, warning her not to interfere. Dantzker is later heard shouting epithets at the agents before she is approached by a Southwest employee. “I am just going to give you a heads up: If you’re on this flight and you speak to them [agents] like that, you will not board this flight,” he says. 

Dantzker, who was visibly upset and yelling, was ultimately not allowed to board the flight home.

In an emailed response, ICE stated, “On July 20, 2026, ICE arrested Chantal Alejandra Morales Rojas, an illegal alien from Ecuador. She entered the country on October 20, 2024, on a visa that would allow her to stay in the country until January 4, 2025. In violation of our nation’s laws, she overstayed her visa. She remains in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.”

Rojas’ attorney, Laura Lichter, disputes ICE’s account.

”Chantal came to the United States lawfully in early 2023 on a J-1 exchange visitor visa as an au pair,” said Lichter. “She followed the rules of her program and, before it ended, timely filed an application with U.S. immigration authorities that allowed her to remain in the country while her case has been pending.”

Lichter added, “For more than three years, she has continued to live here with federal authorization and has worked legally under employment authorization issued by the U.S. government.”

Rojas has been working as a software developer for an inclusive recycling app company in Oakland. She had never been issued a deportation order or been notified that she was on any list of people targeted for deportation. 

Rojas was taken to the Aurora ICE Processing Center, also referred to as the Denver Contract Detention Facility where she is currently being detained.

In a blog post, Austin Kocher, assistant research professor at Syracuse University who has spent nearly two decades mapping immigration enforcement, notes daily ICE arrests have spiked to over 1,300 in June. Some 65,765 people are also now in ICE detention.

“Of those people held in detention, the largest group continues to be immigrants with no criminal history whatsoever,” writes Kocher, “reinforcing the now longstanding observation that the agency is not targeting the worst of the worst.”

Colorado has a history of such arrests. On May 12, 2026, U.S. District Court Judge R. Brooke Jackson found that federal immigration officers in the state had been arresting individuals without proper warrants in violation of their due process rights, and without checking to see if the person being arrested was likely to flee.

The court order required additional training for immigration officers in Colorado and laid out specific protocol for documentation of flight risk and identification of officers in warrantless arrests.

In 2018, Southwest Airlines joined a coalition of Texas businesses publicly backing immigrants by supporting the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) initiative.

“We do not wish to have involvement in the process of separating children from their parents,” the airline said in a statement at the time.

Southwest did not respond to requests for comment on Rojas’s arrest or its current policy regarding cooperation with immigration enforcement. 

The Transportation Safety Administration does share traveler information with ICE. Both agencies are under the Department of Homeland Security.

Rojas’ friends and family, meanwhile, are working with an attorney to ensure her safety and right to due process.

“I care for her like she is my daughter,” said Lauren Cahr, the mother for whom Rojas worked as an au pair. “She is a part of my family. She has never hurt anyone and just lives a quiet life. She came here legally and tried to do everything right.”

The post ‘She followed the rules,’ says lawyer for woman arrested by ICE at Denver International appeared first on San Francisco Bay View.

VIDEO GRAPHIC: ‘Gaza Has Ignited a Revolution’_ Albanese Addresses Anti-Zionist Jewish Congress – Palestine Chronicle link to YouTube 062626

by Romana Rubeo  

Addressing the Second Jewish Anti-Zionist Congress, Francesca Albanese argued that Palestine has exposed the world’s failures while inspiring global resistance. Watch the livestream on YouTube here.

Dublin – Addressing the Second Jewish Anti-Zionist Congress via video link from Palermo on June 26, UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese argued that the genocide in Gaza has evolved into far more than Israel’s war against the Palestinian people. 

Instead, she said, it has become the clearest expression of a global political and ideological system that has normalized Palestinian dispossession while exposing the failures of international law, democratic institutions and the post-war international order itself.

The destruction of Palestinians

Describing Palestine as both “a revealer” and “a mirror,” Albanese urged participants to view the current moment not only through the lens of Israel’s actions but through the responses — or silence — of governments, institutions and societies across the world.

“We are now in the third year of the genocide,” Albanese said, arguing that the violence imposed on Palestinians could no longer be understood as the responsibility of Israel alone. 

Today, she contended, Israel operates with the ideological, political and military support of a broad international network that extends well beyond its traditional Western allies.

“There is hardly a corner of the world untouched by Zionism as a political ideology,” she said, pointing to the role played not only by Western governments and private institutions but also by several Arab states and religious organizations that have helped normalize and disseminate the ideology internationally.

While acknowledging that Zionism has carried different meanings throughout its history, Albanese argued that its contemporary political expression had become inseparable from the ongoing destruction of Palestinian life.

“I think we should all be able to agree on one point,” she said. “Today, more than ever, Zionism has become predicated upon the destruction of the Palestinian people and the seizure of what little remains of their homeland.”

For Albanese, the consequences extend well beyond Palestine itself. Zionism, she argued, has evolved into an ideology that increasingly destabilizes the broader region.

“Today, Zionism is no longer only about the destruction of Palestinians,” she said. “It has become an ideology contributing to the destruction of entire societies across West Asia.”

Palestine as the world’s mirror

Throughout her address, Albanese returned repeatedly to the idea that Palestine has fundamentally altered how the world understands itself.

“Palestine has become a revealer,” she said before listing what the Palestinian struggle has exposed: “the Nakba … the colonial nature of the Zionist project … apartheid … and genocide — which is still ongoing.”

Yet Palestine, she argued, has not merely revealed the structures underpinning Israeli policies. It has also become “a mirror,” reflecting the moral choices made by individuals, governments and international institutions.

“I have often said that Palestine has also become a mirror,” Albanese explained, “a mirror reflecting who we are — as individuals, as societies and as states.”

Drawing one of the speech’s most striking historical parallels, Albanese argued that comparisons with the Holocaust should not be understood as competitions over suffering but as a way of understanding how atrocities become internationalized through the participation — or acquiescence — of others.

“There is one comparison with the Holocaust that I believe can and must be made,” she said. “This genocide, like the Holocaust, possesses a transnational dimension. It is sustained not only by those who commit it directly but also by those who enable it.”

For Albanese, the tragedy of Gaza lies not only in the crimes themselves but in the fact that they are unfolding within an international legal system specifically designed to prevent such atrocities.

Instead of preventing genocide, she argued, many governments have chosen to facilitate it by rendering Palestinians invisible while normalizing their dehumanization.

Yet even amid that failure, Albanese insisted that Palestine has generated an unprecedented political awakening.

“A minority of humanity now sees what many others still refuse — or are unable — to see,” she said before rejecting the idea that meaningful political change requires majority support.

“Revolutions are never made by majorities,” Albanese argued. “They are usually made by 10 percent of society.”

Looking at the global solidarity movement that has emerged over the past two years, she concluded: “Today, we are more than 10 percent.”

For that reason, she said, “Palestine has ignited a global revolution.”

From international law to political action

While much of Albanese’s work has centered on international law, she cautioned against viewing legal mechanisms as sufficient on their own.

“International law provides us with a roadmap,” she said, emphasizing that it clearly requires Israel to end its occupation, dismantle apartheid, halt the genocide and hold accountable not only those directly responsible for these crimes but also those who have profited from them.

Yet law without ethics, she warned, remains powerless.

“Without ethics, it becomes powerless,” Albanese said, pointing to the growing gap between overwhelming legal evidence and the unwillingness of many governments to act.

That disconnect, she argued, explains why civil society has become indispensable in enforcing international norms that political leaders refuse to uphold.

For Albanese, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement represents one of the clearest examples of that principle in practice.

Rather than viewing BDS simply as a protest campaign, she described it as “a practical method for implementing international law through collective action” and “an expression of integrity.”

Her own work, she explained, has focused primarily on accountability, insisting that those responsible for crimes against Palestinians — as well as those enabling them — must ultimately face justice.

“The violations themselves must end,” she said, adding that the increasing attacks on investigators, judges, prosecutors and human rights defenders demonstrate how threatening accountability has become to those invested in maintaining impunity.

But Albanese also urged supporters of Palestine to engage more directly with electoral politics.

“For many, politics has become a business,” she observed. “For honest people, politics is a sacrifice.”

“We must reclaim it,” she continued. “We must restore democracy to its true purpose.”

At the same time, she warned against what she called “political purism,” arguing that movements often waste energy speaking only to those who already agree with them.

“We need to abandon political purism,” Albanese said. “Too often we speak only to those who already agree with us.”

Instead, she urged activists to reach those who remain undecided because “if they cannot see Palestine, they cannot act in its defense.”

As her remarks drew to a close, Albanese rejected the widespread feeling that public mobilization has failed to produce meaningful change.

Many people, she acknowledged, ask whether years of demonstrations have accomplished anything.

Her answer was unequivocal.

“If nothing were changing, there would not be so much repression,” Albanese said, arguing that the growing criminalization of activists, investigators and international legal institutions reflects precisely the effectiveness of the solidarity movement.

“Our pressure works,” she said. “It makes governments uncomfortable. It makes those profiting from genocide nervous.”

Concluding on a personal note, Albanese thanked anti-Zionist Israeli activist Ronnie Barkan for his persistence in ensuring she could participate remotely despite numerous obstacles.

“If everyone in this room possessed the perseverance that Ronnie Barkan showed in making sure I could participate in this Congress,” she said with a smile, “Palestine would already be free.”

“So be like Ronnie,” Albanese concluded. “Persevere.”

Romana Rubeo is an Italian writer and the managing editor of The Palestine Chronicle. Her articles have appeared in many online newspapers and academic journals. She holds a Master’s Degree in Foreign Languages and Literature and specializes in audio-visual and journalism translation.

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by Donald ‘C-Note’ Hooker

In April, a California Parole Board panel recognized no crime occurred in finding me, Donald “C-Note” Hooker, the Black August Artist, suitable for parole. “Commissioner Nwajei and I both find it very plausible that this crime did not happen,” stated Parole Board Commissioner Neil Schneider. “That does pose a question for any panel. If the panel finds it’s plausible, like you said, ‘Then why, why am I here in prison?’” 

I had submitted “MY LIFE CRIME as the original LAPD Rampart corruption whistleblower” as a means to confront and expose the Los Angeles County District Attorney (LACDA) for sitting on exculpatory evidence of my innocence for years. An attorney representing the LACDA was at this Parole Board hearing. Twenty years earlier, former federal Public Defender Ronald O. Kaye wrote to me, saying, “Your claims are very compelling. It appears that you have some solid evidence to challenge your prosecution – keep on fighting.” 

Black August began in 1979, by San Quentin prisoners as a month-long memorial to commemorate the lives lost in the struggle for prison reform, most notably, the August deaths of George and Jonathan Jackson. Nearly 50 years later, its practices of fasting, studying, activism and reflection have become internationally observed. Others have expanded this month-long reflective commemoration to observe other August events, such as the Haitian Revolution and the Watts and Nat Turner rebellions. 

“The Black August Artist,” so named after my self-portrait work of the same title, was a work inspired by the iconography of Emory Douglas, the Minister of Culture for the Black Panthers. As the world’s most prolific prison artist, I prominently feature women in my work, as all the prison reform energy is geared towards the men and not women prisoners. This artistic sentiment is strongly reflected in my first political work, “Black August – Los Angeles,” a work featured in the Wikipedia article, “Black August (commemoration).” I define the goal of the campaign this way: As Black August nears, and you need to tell a Black August story, tell this story. And when I come home in August, and you’re doing a Black August event, allow me to speak at your event. 

Note: C-Note enlisted many well known fellow prisoners and prisoner supporters in his fight for freedom. Mumia Abu-Jamal recorded a 15-minute video. Following is a report by Ricardo Alvarez of the organization P.E.A.C.E. (Parole Elder Abuse Concerns Everyone). Thanks to Minister King X for passing it along.

How C-Note won his freedom

We are awaiting the imminent liberation of Donald C-Note Hooker, who won his historic April 15th Parole Board hearings entirely on his terms: C-Note Challenges to the CA Parole Board. 

Allow me to share some reflections regarding the importance of holding the parole board accountable. We are in the process of recording this victory on the P.E.A.C.E website. 

Consider C-Note’s preparation for the Parole Board process:

• He refused to be seen by the Parole Board until they recognized that he was a non-violent Black elder who insisted that he will not engage in any demands for remorse as his claims of innocence have never wavered.
• He asserted that he had no intention of engaging in prison validated rehab programs as his life accomplishments stood on their own merits,
• He asserted that the parole boards were legally required to see him as eligible for “presumptive release” should be the standard of the proceedings and any action or statement that was prejudicial to his freedom would be scrutinized and held to the highest standard of legal and professional review.
• He coordinated communication through me as a 30-year trauma-informed physician the notification that he or I would be submitting a claim to the California Board of Psychology regarding the behavior of one Parole Board member and board certified psychologist who used language to suggest C-Note had “tangential thoughts” and “pressured speech” which is absolutely contraindicated by transcripts and witnesses.
• He is the first prisoner in the US known to commit a hunger strike exclusively for parole justice.
• He openly challenged the dangerous use of “confidential memos,” which are used against a prisoner’s release but are not subjected to a prisoner’s direct review,
• He specifically noted the perjury that resulted when the complicit and corrupt arresting sargeant denied under oath ever being investigated or interviewed and the LA DA Investigation Division stated under oath that he was investigated and interviewed. 
• C-Note made clear to the Parole Board that documented evidence of a bad case against him by the LA DA office, which was summarized in “My Life Crime” and which explicitly notes their legal and ethical responsibility to release him.

Consider the Parole Board outcome:

• C-Note was granted recommendation for freedom and will be free about 120 days from April 15th.
• The Parole Board recognized the legitimacy of his lifework as evidence of rehab. 
• The Parole Board explicitly states that they were required to honor all the court decisions before them but noted all the irregularities in the reporting and the deep discrepancies in the veracity of the case and stated that his innocence was “highly plausible.”
• The confidential memo was removed from consideration in his hearing as he made clear that he would engage legal counsel to examine the complete failure of the CDCr to take appropriate steps to protect other prisoners or investigate a plausible threat of harm.
• A representative of the LA DA dared to stand before the court and acknowledge that she did not read the entire case but stood against his freedom. C-Note has already sent a complaint to the California Bar Association for this behavior.

Send our brother C-Note some love and light – and congratulations: Donald “C-Note” Hooker, K94063, A2-150, P.O. Box 4430, Lancaster CA 93539.

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by JR Valrey, the People’s Minister of Information

Scid “Trap Nature” Howard is one of the jewels from Oakland when it comes to teaching Black people in the Bay and beyond about nature. As a child, he was an explorer who realized that he had the uncanny gift of being able to feel comfortable with and communicate with nature. After traveling the outbacks of the Bay Area and beyond, he now is on a trek to educate others “in the trap,” aka the hood, about what he has soaked up and learned from his stoop in Oakland, California.

JR Valrey: What is Trap Nature? Why did you name it that? And how did it start?

Scid “Trap Nature” Howard: Trap Nature is a nature-branded business surrounding nature and wildlife topics from a hood perspective. That includes education and experience.

JR Valrey: What interested you most about nature growing up?

Scid “Trap Nature” Howard: It was a passion that I always had. I just got distracted like so many others due to the lack of availability. That was really all I wanted to do as a child. Now that I’m older, I take full advantage.

JR Valrey: Where have you been in the wilderness of the Bay Area?

Scid “Trap Nature” Howard: Everywhere in almost every Bay Area city and county.

JR Valrey: Where have you hiked and camped outside of the Bay Area?

Scid “Trap Nature” Howard: Mount Shasta was my favorite, but I’ve been to different states as well. I’ve been to Arkansas documenting water moccasins. I’ve been to Texas catching speckled kingsnakes. I’ve been to a lot of places looking for wildlife, and that’s what I love about this. I can travel almost anywhere and do what I do.

JR Valrey: What kinds of animals have you encountered on your excursions? Which animals have you interacted with?

Scid “Trap Nature” Howard: I’ve damn near seen it all. Mountain lions, wolves, bobcats, badgers, tarantulas to countless reptiles and amphibians. I’ve encountered many, but my favorite is rattlesnakes. I’ve been interacting with and studying their behavior for over 15 years now. I also like to educate people about my findings because I feel they are very misunderstood animals.

JR Valrey: Can you explain why you feel comfortable interacting with wild wolves, snakes, etc.?

Scid “Trap Nature” Howard: Because everything is always about energy, understanding and, of course, knowing what you are doing. What I do is not for everyone, but there are some people out here who just have a certain gift with wildlife or even domesticated animals. I also have a gift with training strong-breed dogs. It takes a lot of energy and understanding to train certain breeds of dogs. When I had my wolf experience, that was when I realized how similar they behave to dogs.

JR Valrey: Who is your target audience with Trap Nature?

Scid “Trap Nature” Howard: Those who don’t have access to knowledge when it comes to the science of nature. I feel it’s important that everyone knows their roles in nature because ignorance can have negative impacts. I also highlight how we can be positive impacts just by becoming connected.

JR Valrey: How could people book you for speaking engagements or hiking tours?

Scid “Trap Nature” Howard: I have a website www.OfficialTrapNature.com and follow me on instagram @officialtrapnature

SF Bay View Editor-in-Chief JR Valrey is a veteran journalist who can be heard weekly on Wednesdays on 89.5FM KPOO or KPOO.com from noon to 3 p.m. His work can also be heard on www.blockreportradioworld.com. You can reach him at JR@sfbayview.com

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by Shaun King

America should not host the World Cup while banning the world

A man earned his way to the World Cup.

Not through favoritism. Not through politics. Not through privilege. He earned it through excellence, discipline, reputation and years of work in one of the most demanding jobs in global sports.

Then the United States blocked him at the border.

That is what happened to Omar Abdulkadir Artan, one of Africa’s top soccer referees, a Somali official selected to work at the 2026 FIFA World Cup. And it is completely, utterly shameful.

Family, this is exactly why independent journalism matters. Corporate media will often describe moments like this with the cold language of “visa complications” and “vetting concerns,” as if a man’s life, career, dignity and nation were not just humiliated in public.

According to Al Jazeera, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed that Artan was denied entry after arriving in South Florida. A DHS spokesperson said he was “determined to be inadmissible due to vetting concerns,” but provided no public details explaining what those concerns actually were.

According to Reuters, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said a Somali national arrived at Miami International Airport from Istanbul, underwent additional inspection, and was deemed inadmissible. Reuters also reported that Artan had a valid visa, according to media reports. Al Jazeera made the same basic point in another way: The fact that he arrived in the United States suggests he had already been granted permission to travel.

Now, to be clear, a visa does not automatically guarantee admission into the United States. Customs officials can still deny entry at the port of arrival. But that legal technicality does not make this morally acceptable. It does not make it fair. It does not make it less ugly. And it certainly does not erase the obvious context: Omar Artan is Somali, and Somalia is on Donald Trump’s travel ban list.

The White House proclamation itself lists Somalia among the countries whose nationals face full entry restrictions. The government can wrap that policy in all the sterile national security language it wants, but what it produced here was a global humiliation of a man who had already been selected by the world governing body of soccer to help officiate the world’s biggest tournament.

And let’s not pretend this was some random local referee with a thin résumé.

According to Reuters, Artan was named Best Male Referee for 2025 by the Confederation of African Football, the governing body for soccer across Africa. According to The Guardian, he has been a FIFA referee since 2018, officiated at the Africa Cup of Nations, and was set to become the first Somali official ever to work a World Cup.

That is not a small thing.

The Africa Cup of Nations is one of the most important international tournaments in the world. The Confederation of African Football Champions League is the premier club competition on the African continent. FIFA, the world governing body for soccer, does not select referees for the World Cup as a courtesy. These are elite appointments. They are earned.

Artan earned his place.

America took it from him.

And what makes this even more enraging is the dignity of his response. Reuters reported that Artan thanked FIFA and the Confederation of African Football for their support and said, “I promise to keep my refereeing levels up.” That is a man refusing to be broken by a government that treated him as disposable.

But we should not allow his grace to soften our outrage.

Because this is not just about one referee. It is about the hypocrisy of the entire tournament.

FIFA has spent years branding soccer as a force for unity. Its own campaign, “Football Unites the World,” says the game brings people together “all over the world.” FIFA’s “Unite for Inclusion” campaign says “football is for everyone” and commits to fighting discrimination at all levels.

Beautiful words.

But what do those words mean when one of the best referees in Africa can be selected for the World Cup, fly to the host country, and be turned away because he comes from a banned nation?

What does “football unites the world” mean if the host country gets to decide that some of the world is not welcome?

What does “football is for everyone” mean if “everyone” does not include a Somali Muslim referee who earned his place on the field?

This is where FIFA’s cowardice matters. According to The Guardian, FIFA confirmed Artan “will be unable to train and officiate” at the World Cup and said it was not involved in host country immigration processes. In plain English, FIFA is saying: this is not our problem.

But it is their problem.

If FIFA awards the World Cup to a country whose government can block qualified officials from participating because of nationality, religion, race or origin, then FIFA cannot hide behind paperwork. FIFA chose the host. FIFA accepted the risk. FIFA made the deal. FIFA gets the money, the prestige, the broadcast revenue, the corporate sponsors, and the global stage. It does not also get to wash its hands when the host country humiliates a referee who belongs at the tournament.

That is not neutrality.

That is cowardice.

And the problem is already bigger than Omar Artan. The Guardian reported that the 2026 World Cup has been caught up in Trump’s aggressive border restrictions, with visa and entry problems affecting Artan, Iranian team officials and staff, an Iraqi player and team photographer, a Swiss player, and even some Scottish fans.

That is the bigger scandal.

The United States wants the honor of hosting the world while building systems to exclude the world. It wants the ceremony, the flags, the anthems, the tourism, the revenue, the stadiums, the television spectacle, and the global prestige. But when people from certain countries actually arrive, suddenly they are treated like threats.

This is not the spirit of the World Cup.

It is the betrayal of it.

The World Cup is supposed to be one of the few places where the whole world is visible at once. Rich nations and poor nations. Powerful nations and occupied nations. Nations that are celebrated and nations that are constantly stereotyped. Players, referees, coaches, journalists, workers, and fans from every corner of the earth come together around the same game. That is the point.

And yet here we are, watching the United States tell one of the best referees in the world that his excellence still was not enough to overcome his nationality.

That is the message.

You can be one of the best in Africa.

You can be selected by FIFA.

You can have the credentials.

You can have the visa.

You can have the spotless public record.

You can have the honor of representing your people on a stage they have never reached before.

And still, at the border, America can look at your passport and say no.

One of the things Islam teaches, and something I want my non-Muslim readers to understand, is that human beings are not honored or disgraced by nationality, tribe, race or passport. In the Qur’an, Allah teaches that humanity was made into nations and tribes so that we may know one another, not despise one another. The verse says the most honored people are not those with the most powerful country, but those with the most righteousness and consciousness of God. You can read that teaching in Qur’an 49:13.

That moral teaching is directly relevant here.

Because the United States did not treat Omar Artan like a man to be known. It treated him like a category. Somali. Banned nation. Vetting concern. Inadmissible.

That is how discrimination often works. It turns a full human being into a label, then punishes him for the label.

And that is why this story is so infuriating. Not because soccer is more important than life and death. It is not. But because sports often reveal the truth about the societies that host them. The World Cup is supposed to be a mirror of global possibility. Here, it is becoming a mirror of American exclusion.

Omar Artan should be preparing to officiate at the World Cup.

He should be walking onto the field as the first Somali referee ever to do so.

He should be a source of pride for Somalia, for Africa, for Muslims, and for every person who believes merit should matter more than bigotry.

Instead, he was turned away in Miami.

And FIFA shrugged.

No. That is not good enough.

If the United States cannot welcome the world, it should not host the world. If FIFA cannot protect qualified participants from discriminatory exclusion, it should stop pretending its slogans mean anything. And if “Football Unites the World” is going to be more than a marketing campaign, then FIFA must act like the world actually includes Somalia.

Because Omar Artan did not fail the World Cup.

The World Cup failed him.

And so did America.

This story first appeared on The North Star with Shaun King. 

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by JR Valrey, The People’s Minister of Information

Mindfulness, exercising and wellness are three major pillars to practicing preventative medicine. In a society where almost everything is poison, and pharmaceutical drugs are seen as the panacea for every ailment, we are encouraging our people to live and heal in the most holistic ways possible. 

This summer we want to teach and remind our readers to be conscious of their overall health on a regular basis, because health is wealth. We talked with yoga instructor CJ Spears about her philosophy, practices and the classes that she offers. She is a young Black woman who is selflessly teaching others how to deal with this highly stressful environment known as Black life in Amerikkka, in a constructive way. 

JR Valrey: What is yoga? Can you talk a little bit about its history?

CJ Spears: Yoga is an ancient practice of presence. It is so much more than just stretching; it is also being honest with yourself and others. It is body listening and mind opening and everlasting equanimity in the palm of your hand. It is a process meant to enlighten our spirit as it journeys through this human experience. Yoga practices have been traced back to India and Egypt over 5,000 years ago. Ancestors whose names we may never know sat in the same postures to maintain their connection to the Earth and each other. How beautiful is that?

JR Valrey: When and how did you become interested in yoga?

CJ Spears: I have always experienced huge emotions. I was the crybaby of the family, who could break down in tears just from watching someone die in a movie. Around the age of 14, I started reading buddhist literature and learned that meditation can help us to learn from our emotions and accept them, without allowing them to control my mind. That helped me a lot through high school, and I continued practicing yoga/meditation off and on throughout college. Detox yoga especially. I graduated in the pandemic, on zoom, and my yoga mat was the only place where I truly felt peace during that time in my life. I wanted desperately to be able to carry that peace off the mat and into the rest of my life. So I began my 200-hour yoga teacher training!

JR Valrey: What was the process from you becoming a practitioner to a yoga teacher like?

CJ Spears: Shifting from practitioner to teacher felt like breaking out of a cocoon. For years, this practice had held me together in the moments when I most felt like falling apart. My first year of teaching I did my best to offer the wisdom and subtle movements that I gained through a deeply personal, darkened transformation. I connected with my community in a new way, as I learned that care can look like sitting with someone as they feel their feelings.

JR Valrey: Why do you include journaling in your yoga classes? What is the connection between yoga and journaling?

CJ Spears: I love writing; it is a form of therapy for me. Combining yoga with journaling prompts based on the themes of the class really helps students to archive their healing and reflect on their inner environment. Yoga helps us move out of our thinking minds and into our feeling bodies. That is the perfect place to journal from, because the words that flow out of your pen are connected to your soul rather than your ego. 

I have a few essays about this on Substack (@cjamswriting) called, “Poetry Is Really Just Yoga for Words” and “Handwriting Is Sacred.” You can check them out to learn more.

JR Valrey: What are some of the physical and psychological benefits of yoga?

CJ Spears: There are countless benefits, so I’ll just share my favorite three. First, yoga expands the space between life’s events and your responses to them. Second, you are able to relax your fascia and release emotions stuck in the body. And last but definitely not least, yoga is a practice of pure liberation for all beings on earth. It radicalizes you by grounding you in unconditional awareness.

JR Valrey: Where will you be offering classes in July and August?

CJ Spears: In June, I have five beautiful events in Oakland. They all will incorporate some aspect of journaling and restorative yoga.

The first two are FREE: 

Yoga & Journaling at the Lake with Marley’s Mangoes and Lvrgrlsocial (Saturday, June 13, at 10 a.m.); West Oakland Library Friends Community Seated Yoga (June 13 from 12-4 p.m.)

The last three events are hosted at Black- and Indigenous-owned spaces; refreshments and mats provided if needed:

Flow & Write Through It at Obsidian Healing Camp (Journaling and Yoga, June 24 at 7 p.m.)

Slow down Saturday: Sade Yoga and Journaling at Choc’late Mama Boutique in Emeryville (June 27 at 6 p.m.) Lunar Healing Circle (June 29 at 7 p.m.)

JR Valrey: How could people participate if they are interested? How could people stay up to date with your class schedule? 

CJ Spears: RSVP for any of these events to participate; all body types and levels are welcome! You can connect with me on Instagram (@cjamswriting) for updates on events or email me cjamswriting3@gmail.com if you would like me at your next event or a 1:1 session!

SF Bay View Editor-in-Chief JR Valrey is a veteran journalist who can be heard weekly on Wednesdays on 89.5FM KPOO or KPOO.com from noon to 3 p.m. His work can also be heard on www.blockreportradioworld.com. 

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Editor in Chief JR Valrey, Manager of Production Leah Harmony and Managing Editor Tabari Morris are guiding the Bay View into its 50th anniversary year with a shared commitment to Black community journalism, strong production and truthful storytelling.

by Tabari Morris

As SF Bay View moves into its 50th anniversary year, a new editorial team is stepping forward to help lead one of the Bay’s longest-running Black newspapers into its next chapter. Editor in Chief JR Valrey, Production Manager Leah Harmony and Managing Editor Tabari Morris bring different life experiences, different professional tools and one shared commitment: accountability to Black community, political clarity and journalism that speaks from the ground up, not down from above.

That matters because the Bay View is not just another newspaper. It is a Black community institution shaped by struggle, survival and the insistence that people on the front lines of injustice must be able to tell their own stories. As corporate media continues to narrate Black lives into crime blurbs, soundbites and stereotypes, the Bay View’s role has remained rooted in movement journalism, neighborhood memory and direct contact with the people it serves.

Valrey’s history with the Bay View helps explain that continuity. Over 26 years with the paper, he has served as a writer, associate editor, Oakland Bureau Chief, distribution manager, founder of the Mumia Abu Jamal Journalism Program for Black writers, and Editor in Chief before stepping back into the role again. He says it is “an honor to hold this position during the 50th anniversary of such a prestigious Black/Pan African newspaper with a local, national and international scope,” and he places the Bay View in the lineage of revolutionary Black journalism that refuses to answer first to advertisers, political officials or the white power structure.

For Valrey, the mission is historical and urgent at the same time. He has described the Bay View as “the literary descendant of The Black Panther newspaper,” and says the paper exists to keep “revolutionary community journalism alive.” He also argues that every issue should carry stories that mainstream media has failed to cover, because the Bay View is a platform where Black people can speak for themselves “uncensored,” from Hunters Point to Oakland to liberation struggles abroad.

Harmony brings a different but equally necessary background to the editorial team. She grew up from birth to age 12 at Haight and Ashbury, the daughter of a mother from upstate New York and a father from Philadelphia who came west with the spirit of music, freedom and movement politics that shaped the Bay Area in the late 1960s and beyond. She later lived in Berkeley, Oakland, Los Angeles and Hunters Point, and says that while she claims Oakland, “my heart can be found in San Francisco.”

Her family history also helps explain the politics and emotional texture she brings to the work. She describes her mother as a writer and copy editor with “zero tolerance for war, racism, and the evils of capitalism,” and her father as a guitarist shaped by the Summer of Love, antiwar culture and a belief that “women were people, perhaps better people than men, & love, damn it, was free.” That inheritance of music, writing, honesty and resistance runs through the way she talks about media, community and truth.

Harmony’s career in media began, by her own telling, when she read her husband’s record contract and saw how badly the system exploited artists. That moment pushed her into advocacy and entertainment work, beginning at HITS magazine and then at Edmonds Entertainment, where she moved from assistant to executive in four years and built experience across both the business and creative sides of production. She later produced and commissioned music videos for major labels and artists including Island Def Jam, Sony Music, Atlantic Records, Rihanna, Drake, Usher, JLo and Shakira, while also writing, supporting nonprofit campaigns and developing projects rooted in environmental justice, voter awareness and media accountability.

That is part of why Harmony approaches the Bay View as more than a production job. “A producer is someone who makes things happen,” she said in an earlier response, describing a role that includes story flow, visuals, deadlines and the thousands of details that make a paper worth printing. She has also said the Bay View matters because it proves “free speech, free thought and truthful media can exist, and be supported,” and because bringing “a voice and a face to Black media” can build readership, community and trust for the next generation.

Morris brings equally deep San Francisco roots and a community-grounded editorial sensibility. His grandmother was principal of George Washington Carver Elementary School. His great-aunt owned the Jazz Room on Third Street. Childhood memories of being in those neighborhood spaces, getting haircuts nearby and moving through the city with family are part of why, as he puts it, “my heart and soul is in San Francisco.” Those roots shape his belief that people are products of the same systems they are trying to survive, and that journalism has to listen for what is being said and what is not being said.

His path into the work came through an inquisitive childhood, formal journalism study and community-based health training, not elite institutions. Morris says he became frustrated watching people try to tell their stories only to be reduced to soundbites that fit somebody else’s narrative. He says his job as an editor is to be “facts driven,” to “research the researcher’s research” and validate “the source’s sources,” while making sure Bay View readers do not need a college degree to understand what is happening around them.

That outlook is strengthened by his Community Health Worker certification, and his ongoing Community Mental Health Worker training. He says those experiences help him communicate “so we can be talked to, and not at,” and bring cultural humility to reporting on health and mental health in Black communities.In a city where Black communities are overstudied, underserved and too often spoken about as problems instead of people, that kind of training sharpens the Bay View’s ability to report with accuracy, empathy and usefulness.

Together, the three editors offer more than a reshuffled masthead. They reflect three linked traditions inside Black media: movement journalism, cultural production and neighborhood truth-telling. Valrey’s role is to hold the political line and keep the paper accountable to the struggles that gave it life. Harmony’s role is to make the work sing on the page and beyond it, using images, design, production discipline and wider media forms to expand the paper’s reach. Morris’ role is to help turn all of that into a steady editorial practice grounded in facts, local knowledge, health literacy and community trust.

They also share a belief that the Bay View must evolve without losing itself. Valrey says the paper must become more of a multimedia organization as the digital age changes how people receive information. Harmony wants to restore sections lost over the years, expand coverage in health and technology, and continue building across podcasts, web work and visual storytelling. Morris sees digital publishing and video as tools that let readers not only read the news but “see and hear from the people that we’ve only been writing about and through.”

The political throughline is accountability. Valrey says that means being “accountable to our community first unlike other media organizations who are first responsive to their advertisers and political officials.” Harmony says accountability means showing up, correcting errors and staying connected enough to earn trust. Morris says the truth “has no adversaries,” and that the Bay View must use its platform to “inform, educate, advocate, demonstrate and show our people how we truly are instead of what’s being shown as ‘black culture.’”

As the Bay View heads toward its 50th anniversary, our editorial team is presenting a clear message to readers: the legacy is intact, the bench is deeper, and the paper is preparing to grow. With Valrey’s long institutional memory, Harmony’s production and creative range, and Morris’ San Francisco grounding and community-centered editorial approach, the Bay View is not stepping away from what made it matter. It is getting sharper about how to carry that mission forward.

SF Bay View Managing Editor Tabari Morris can be reached at tabari@sfbayview.com. 

Three voices, one band, one sound: SF Bay View’s new editorial team for the next 50 years

The post Three voices, one band, one sound: SF Bay View’s new editorial team for the next 50 years appeared first on San Francisco Bay View.

A culturally relevant space for children ages 0–5 in Oakland

by JR Valrey, The People’s Minister of Information

The late, great, legendary songstress Whitney Houston once sang, “The children are our future[ teach them well, and let them lead the way…” The words were sung majestically, but more importantly they are chillingly true. I’ve shortened what I took from the message of the song, which is that you only get out of a child what has been put into them.

Afro-Play is an organized play space dedicated to the development of Black children from ages 0–5 years old that occurs in East and West Oakland on a regular basis. I grew up with the co-founding director Ellen Hamilton, who was always artistically inclined and driven, and years later I found out about her work from a younger cousin with a daughter, who raved to me that her daughter was attending a phenomenal youth program. It just so happened that it was Afro-Play, and I later found out, upon further research, it was founded by Ellen Hamilton and her partner Ajhana DeRamous.

As a single father, who didn’t grow up with a father, had limited family support, and who helped to raise my children, I had a lot of unanswered questions about rearing them. Afro-Play is the kind of community of Black parents and children that I wish I’d had. Hopefully the parents of today can take advantage of the services of Afro-Play, as well as the knowledge of its co-founders, for the benefit of the children and community as a whole.

JR Valrey: What is Afro-Play? When did it start? Why?

Ellen Hamilton: Afro-Play is an affinity family playgroup for families with Black children ages birth to 5 years old. The best way to describe the setting of a “playgroup” is a space set up similarly to a preschool, with a short structured play-based schedule and where parents and caregivers are present to engage in activities alongside their child(ren). Next we have to further describe what a playgroup is, as some people are unfamiliar with the concept. Often people hear the term and assume it’s something that’s just for moms or just a “thing” for women to “sit around” while their children play. No, Afro-Play’s playgroups are not that at all. 

First, Afro-Play is not just for women. Parents, grandparents, caregivers and other family members of all genders are welcome. We are an intergenerational program. Second, Afro-Play’s playgroups are far more intentionally involved, designed to foster meaningful parent-child and community engagement. The experience goes far beyond simply supervising children at play. It’s a place where parents can build their village, find community and access essential community resources that support them in navigating parenthood. For example, various workshops, free diapers and wipes, or free produce and pantry items.

Afro-Play began in 2018 as a response to a community call. But before we get into that, it’s important to understand how we met and grew into our current roles as Afro-Play Oakland’s co-founding directors.

In 2016, we (Ellen Hamilton and Ajhana DeRamous) were participating in a multicultural playgroup at Allendale Elementary through Lotus Bloom in Oakland. I (Ellen) was attending with my third child and had been involved in multicultural playgroups within Lotus Bloom’s network for many years. Ajhana was attending with her first child, newly postpartum and new to both parenthood and playgroups. We each consistently attended the twice-weekly Allendale playgroup with our infants and toddlers, Aziyah and Ezra.

We were two of only a few Black families who regularly participated. Our children brought us together first. As two of the few consistent Black children in the group, they naturally gravitated toward one another and became friends. Their friendship organically introduced us as mothers and moved us beyond the familiar cultural head nod we’d exchanged as the only other Black (and “Oakland-Bay Area” Black) person in the room.

About a year later, we were both invited by staff to become “Parent Leaders,” assisting with tasks such as preparing snacks, welcoming new families, and helping families feel connected. Those responsibilities gradually expanded to leading art activities, reading stories, facilitating songs during circle time, and eventually serving as lead support for Black History Month programming, which was something new for that program to implement. That became one of our proudest accomplishments and made a lasting impact.

That’s where the magic between us as co-leaders began. What started as volunteer leadership evolved into something much more impactful. Although we were in a multicultural setting, Afro-culture often had little to no representation. Too often, Black culture gets lost in the multicultural mix. For example, Lunar New Year might be acknowledged in February while Black History Month gets overlooked, or Christmas and Hanukkah are celebrated in December while Kwanzaa went unrecognized.

In our experience, Black people need to be present in these spaces to authentically implement and share our culture. Otherwise, there is often no representation at all, or a version that lacks depth and impact. At the time (2016–2017), and historically, across many community play spaces, there was very little consistent Black family participation. Playgroups were not a familiar concept within Black culture, so Black cultural presence was often absent. As a result, Black parents who did attend frequently could feel isolated and disconnected from the play experience with their children.

From Parent Leaders, we became Substitute Playgroup Teachers, filling in at Lotus Bloom sites throughout Oakland, including Garfield Elementary, their main site in downtown, Allendale Elementary, and Room to Bloom. That brings us back to the community call mentioned earlier.

Staff at the Room to Bloom site approached us with an opportunity to lead a parent-driven project: creating an affinity group specifically for African American families. They had struggled to maintain consistent participation and wanted to increase awareness of playgroup services in the Castlemont neighborhood, a historically Black community in Deep East Oakland. The opportunity was to launch a nine-week pilot playgroup for Black families, funded by First 5 Alameda County, through Lotus Bloom. This opportunity also came as Ellen was beginning her fourth pregnancy.

On March 20, 2018, Afro-Play debuted and the community showed up and kept coming! Every week we reached capacity. Our success came from simply providing what had been missing: Black culture and a space where parents of Black children felt welcomed, connected, celebrated and supported with resources for their families, and led by Black parents.

Because of the pilot’s success, Lotus Bloom adopted the program “Afro-Play” under its fiscal sponsorship and added it to its regular rotation of weekly playgroups for the 2019–2020 year. Then the pandemic hit … and we had to figure out how to continue without gathering in person. We paused for about a month.

By then, we had already built a strong community of participating families. These were parents with young children who suddenly lost an important part of their routine. Families reached out just to say hello and let their children hear familiar voices. Others asked for ideas to help fill the long days at home. One parent texted, “I’m at home with a toddler and I don’t know what to do!” Another asked, “Can y’all just read an Afrocentric book online or something?”

That request sparked an idea. We realized we could stay connected through YouTube. We launched a channel and created Afro-Play Virtual Circles: weekly prerecorded videos featuring circle time songs, story reading, and art activities. We paired those videos with monthly art supply bags that families could pick up through drive-by distribution at Room to Bloom or at our booth during Black Cultural Zone’s Akoma Market. Each bag contained supplies for the month’s themed projects, helping families stay engaged and connected during a time when isolation was deeply felt.

During that same period, we formed Afro-Play Family Consulting as a General Partnership to support our growing work as other organizations and businesses began contracting our services. We sold Afro-Play Kwanzaa craft bags during the holiday season and Afro-Play Black Legacy Month craft bags, both equipped with a personalized link to demos for the curated bag of supplies. We continued adapting while navigating the uncertainty of statewide shelter-in-place and shutdown orders.

After a period of small outdoor gatherings, we fully returned to in-person programming for the 2021–2022 school year with our weekly East Oakland playgroups. Participation was vibrant. Families were excited to be together again. Some returned with new “pandemic babies,” including Ajhana, who was pregnant with her second child. Others joined us for the first time after only knowing Afro-Play through YouTube and social media. Our community continued to grow and thrive.

We maintained consistent programming in East Oakland and, in Fall 2023, expanded to West Oakland through a monthly Afro-Play pop-up at Mandela Family Resource Center through Lincoln Families. In 2024, Afro-Play Oakland officially became a 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit organization.

JR Valrey: When and where exactly is Afro-Play?

Ellen Hamilton: Currently, Afro-Play operates out of two locations through community partnerships. Weekly on Tuesdays in East Oakland at Room to Bloom Family Resource Center and once a month in West Oakland at Mandela Family Resource Center. It is a value of ours to remain deeply rooted in East Oakland, where we began, and to one day be able to afford to operate out of our own storefront space as a community hub for Black families.

JR Valrey: What is the importance of playing?

Ellen Hamilton: Play is everything! What is life without play? What kind of life can someone have without a little imagination? Play is joy, and joy is a necessity in life.

We firmly believe that all children, especially Black children, deserve joyful play experiences. We can’t be serious all the time. Black people need more opportunities to play, exercise creativity, and simply enjoy being present in the moment. There is power in embracing the freedom of play, something many of our ancestors were not afforded. Black Joy is Revolutionary!

At Afro-Play, we encourage parents and caregivers to leave their Sunday best at home, get a little messy, be present, and fully engage in play alongside their children. It’s okay! In fact, many of our parent participants tell us they enjoy the program just as much as their children. Through sensory activities, dramatic make-believe play, hands-on art, interactive music, and movement, they often reconnect with parts of their own childhood that were limited by cultural expectations. 

We frequently hear familiar childhood stories about being told not to get dirty, mess up their clothes, or take up too much space. While often well-intentioned, those messages can create fear and anxiety where courage and confidence should be growing. Play encourages exploration, curiosity and discovery. The early years of childhood are often considered the “explorer years,” when children learn most by following their curiosity, whether that’s climbing a slide, mixing paint colors, building with blocks, or playing with someone new. Afro-Play creates an environment where families can play freely and without judgment. Get silly, get a little dirty, and keep exploring.

From a developmental perspective, play is essential in early childhood. It supports physical development by strengthening growing muscles, fine motor skills, and gross motor skills, while parent-engaged play helps build language/vocabulary, communication, and social-emotional skills.

A large part of our playgroup schedule is dedicated to “Free Play,” and it is exactly what it sounds like. We provide developmentally appropriate play stations for children and their parents or caregivers to explore at their own pace within a supportive community setting. During free play, children practice sharing, problem-solving, negotiation, communication, and emotional regulation. These are all foundational skills that infants and toddlers develop through social play experiences. Play is how children learn, how families connect, and how play-based communities like Afro-Play thrive.

JR Valrey: Who exactly is your target audience?

Ellen Hamilton: Our primary service population is Black children ages birth to 5 years old and their Black parents/caregivers. We also welcome parents and caregivers of Black children who may not identify as Black themselves; these can be biological, foster, and adoptive parents. 

Afro-Play is centered on the experiences and needs of Black children and families, so we ask all participants to be mindful of and respect the purpose of this sacred affinity space that we built with a lot of caution and care. While those parents are welcome to participate, some resources and discussions may be specifically intended for Black parents and caregivers.

JR Valrey: What is your biggest achievement with Afro-Play? Why?

Ellen Hamilton: Afro-Play Oakland is a two-time award-winning program.

Honorable Judge Benjamin Travis Community Service Award: Awarded by the Charles Houston Bar Association in December 2025.

“Congratulations! On behalf of the Charles Houston Bar Association (CHBA), the oldest association of Black judges, attorneys and law students in California, I am proud to inform you that after careful consideration of the meaningful and measurable difference Afro-Play Oakland has made in the lives of Oakland’s Black community by providing an affirming and supportive space for Black children and families, we have selected Afro-Play Oakland to receive CHBA’s most prestigious honor that we bestow on a community organization that has demonstrated a commitment to advocating for Black children and families, the Benjamin Travis Community Service Award, at CHBA’s 70th Annual Scholarship Awards Gala.” – Vincent L. Brown, (former) President

Community Award: Awarded by Our Family Coalition in May 2023.

“The work you did to identify a large gap for Black families in the Bay Area is remarkable. Your commitment to supporting the healthy social and emotional development of our Black youth is incredible and commendable. When others would shy away, feeling discouraged from the current state of anti-Blackness and the continued systematic oppression and dismantling of Black families, you two stood up to create an oasis of hope and transformation for our community. What’s more, your programming has also lifted and affirmed Black Queer families. Thank you for your partnership and tenacity. Your work truly raises awareness in bringing our families into greater public view and provides a role model of courage and commitment on what we can accomplish when we come together.” – Mimi Demissew, Our Family Coalition Executive Director

Receiving this level of recognition from two distinct organizations is especially meaningful because it affirms that Afro-Play’s impact is being felt far beyond our immediate community. While the gratitude and trust of the families we serve each week remains our greatest source of motivation, these honors validate the importance of creating spaces where Black children and families can thrive. They also reflect the growing reach of our work and the universal need for the affirming, community-centered programming that Afro-Play provides. Afro-Play is simply our heartwork, and that will forever be our greatest accomplishment.

JR Valrey: What has been your biggest struggle?

Ellen Hamilton: Our biggest challenge has been securing consistent, multi-year funding that would allow Afro-Play Oakland to expand our capacity and establish a permanent community space. While we’ve been fortunate to receive some grants and build strong partnerships with organizations and community members who believe in our work, the value of affinity spaces can sometimes be misunderstood. Some people view affinity groups as exclusionary or even racist, when in reality they exist to create belonging, healing and connection for communities that have historically been marginalized. Afro-Play is rooted in teaching self-love, cultural pride, and Harambee! A community that pulls together for Black children and families in a society that too often sends the opposite message. It’s difficult to fully capture that impact on paper. Afro-Play is something you have to experience. IYKYK! We remain confident that the right opportunities and resources will continue to find us as more people witness the transformative power of this work.

In that same spirit, we are encouraged by the growing support for Afro-Play. In March 2027, we will host our 3rd Annual Game Night in Red, Black, and Green fundraiser, bringing together public officials, community leaders and supporters who believe in our mission. This year’s event was a success and reinforced that people recognize the value of Afro-Play and want to help ensure it thrives for generations to come. We are excited to build on that momentum and believe next year’s fundraiser will be even more impactful.

JR Valrey: How can people keep up with Afro-Play? How can they contact you? 

Ellen Hamilton: Afro-Play is reachable through our website: www.AfroPlayOakland.org. That’s where we encourage people to sign up to receive our weekly newsletters if they want to keep up with Afro-Play’s programming or contact us for general inquiries or community partnership requests.

@AfroPlayOakland on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn. Upcoming Afro-Play programming:

*End of July we will have Outdoor Summer Pop-Ups *Aug. 11 back to regular weekly playgroups in Oakland. Sign up to keep up and tell a friend to tell a friend

SF Bay View Editor-in-Chief JR Valrey is a veteran journalist who can be heard weekly on Wednesdays on 89.5FM KPOO or KPOO.com from noon to 3 p.m. His work can also be heard on www. blockreportradioworld.com.

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