Climate Change: What Can You Do About It - Talking with Henrietta

In Honor of the East Palo Alto Center for Community Media's Former Public Allies

Henrietta J. Burroughs is shown delivering the keynote speech at the Public Allies graduation ceremony, which was held on June 29, 2019 at the Redwood Shores Sobrato Center in Redwood City CA.

The months have passed, but the memories linger. Working with the Public Allies, who interned from January to June of this year at the East Palo Alto Center for Community Media was just such a satisfying experience. Those 6 months marked a very special time. 

Emily Hess, above top left with Alamoni Afungia, Edgar Tenorio,

Lea Bolosan and Shristi Prabha

It was truly an honor to be asked to be the keynote speaker at their graduation, which was held at the Redwood Shores Sobrato Center last June.

The graduation, marking their completion of the Public Allies program, was truly an inspiring affair. 

At this time of Thanksgiving, much thanks and best wishes go to EPACCM’s five Public Allies for the contribution they made to the Center and to the East Palo Alto Today newspaper. 
 

The five Allies called themselves the Tiny Gang. But there was nothing tiny about them, even when one member of the group dropped out of the program.

From left, Lea Bolosan, Edgar Tenorio, Srishti Prabha and Alamoni Afungia

The remaining four Allies launched Media Day in East Palo Alto to celebrate East Palo Alto Today's 13th birthday.

Media Day, which brought together nearly 25 of the community’s nonprofits, will become an annual event.

You can see their engaging video interview on the Talking with Henrietta television show here.

You can even see an article about the Allies and the Media Day event on the midpenmedia.org website.

The Public Allies had fun posing with the EPACCM's
founder Henrietta J. Burroughs during Media Day in
East Palo Alto on May 4, 2019

 During the time the Allies and I spent together, I  had a chance to witness their commitment, their focus, their collaboration with each other and their interest in positively addressing the challenges that our communities face. 

Even more appreciation is given to them for the lasting memories that they left, which will be ongoing. 

 So, we give thanks this Thanksgiving to our former Public Allies,  to all who participated in our Media Day celebration, to our readers and our viewers, to the East Palo Alto Today's advertisers and to the East Palo Alto Center for Community Media's donors. Many thanks to all of you!

Is Any Ethnic Group in the U.S. Immune to Racism?

Photo courtesy of https://thetoolkit.wixsite.com/toolkit/black-lives-matter

It’s easy when one is a member of an ethnic group in America to be intimately aware of the challenges that confront the group to which one belongs. For example, a person can be all too aware of the discrimination faced by individual group members and the stereotypes attributed to one’s own racial group.

Given the attention that has been paid to Latino immigrants at the U.S.’ southern border and to DACA recipients, media reports have given our nation disturbing insights into the challenges that many Latinos face.

But, unless a group’s struggles are highlighted by various media outlets and discussed as a local or national issue, many Americans might be unaware of the challenges faced by the various ethnic groups around them and they might not understand the sensitivities that some of them hold. 

This fact was brought to my attention recently during a conversation with one of my neighbors, who is Indian American. The neighbor told me that, a few hours prior to our conversation, he was going to a restaurant with his college-aged son. He dropped his son off at the restaurant and then, intending to join him after he had parked, he drove around the block to find a parking space. Within minutes, his car collided with another car.

The police quickly arrived. The father told me that he called his son on his cell phone to tell him what happened. Standing on the sidewalk at the scene of the accident and facing the direction in which his son was coming, he stood holding his hands behind his back. Upon seeing his father, the son almost collapsed in tears, thinking that his father was handcuffed and being arrested.

In relating the incident, the father said that his son is keenly aware of the Black Lives Movement and of the heartrending experiences that some people of color have had with the police. Since his son saw him standing near several police officers with his hands behind his back, he said that his son feared the worst.

When one thinks of the Black Lives Movement, many people in the U.S. would not necessarily think that it is a movement to which other ethnic groups feel included.

In my latest Talking with Henrietta television show called, Ethnic Media: Who Produces It and Why, one of my guests, Vandana Kumar shares a conversation that she had with one of her twin sons. 

In the conversation, her son told her that she was Indian and he was American.

Seated left to right on the set of  the Talking with Henrietta show on Thursday, November 14, 2019
is Vandana Kumar, Sandy Close, Henrietta J. Burroughs and Diana Ding.

 Kumar’s response to her son might surprise you.

See for yourself what she had to say. You can get more details about this show at www.epatoday.org/tv.html#ethnicmedia and see it on YouTube here.

Interviewing Diahann Carroll

http://thehilltoponline.com/ 

It sometimes feels to me like the end of an era when someone famous dies. I felt that way upon hearing of Diahann Carroll’s death this year on October 4. News reports of her death brought in a flood of memories and I emphasize memories.

It seems like ages ago that I was a college student at Howard University in Washington, D.C. and truthfully, it was ages ago. As a sophomore at the university I volunteered, as one of my extracurricular activities, to report for my college newspaper, which was called The Hilltop.*

Diahann Carroll was in the city doing several evening shows at a major hotel. So, I suggested to Michael Thelwell, The Hilltop’s editor in chief,**  that we feature Carroll in The Hilltop. He agreed that I would write the article. I don’t really remember whom I contacted to get the interview. But, several days later I had an interview with Carroll. We had a late morning meeting in her hotel room, and to my knowledge, there was no one there, but the two of us.

It’s amazing to me now, looking back that, here she was, a well-known star, and she agreed to an interview with me, a college student, in her hotel room.

I don’t remember what she wore, but I do remember that she had a slight amount of light blue eyeshadow on. At the time, I thought that eyeshadow was only worn at night, so I assumed her makeup was from her performance the night before and she hadn't taken her makeup off.  What did I know? I was 17 and not at all worldly-wise.

I pulled out my pad and pencil and the interview was underway. The interview lasted less than an hour, during which time, she was warm, soft-spoken and very gracious and, she answered all of my questions. I learned that her real name was Carol Diahann Johnson, which was something of a surprise, since my maiden name is also Johnson.

My interview with her took place at the height of the Civil Rights Movement. She expressed optimism about race relations in the U.S. and pointed to her own career and her interracial marriage as indicators that things in America were changing and that doors for African Americans were opening.

I had a camera with me and asked her if I could take a picture of her for the article. She told me that it would be better if she sent me one. I was relieved, because being such a newbie at taking photos professionally, I wasn’t really sure how the photo would turn out.

I thanked her for the interview and that was the end of it, except for the fact that I did get the photo several weeks later. It was a headshot and I still remember what she looked like in the photo. The photo arrived after my article was published, and being the collector that I am, who throws few things away, I might still have it, along with the article that I wrote about her.

I’ve never really thought of my interview with Diahann Carroll until now. I am just thrilled that she accorded me the time. I walked away from the interview feeling that the sky was the limit. Perhaps, the interview I had with her played a role in my being selected that year by the Hilltop staff as “The Outstanding Newcomer of the Year.”

It’s said that she was the first African American actress in a major role, in a movie or play, who was not cast as a servant or as subservient in some way.

Through her accomplishments, Diahann Caroll showed that the sky can be the limit. Thank you, Diahann, for being a real role model in many ways.
                                             **************

* The Hilltop,  Howard University's award-winning student-run newspaper, was co-founded in 1924 by Zora Neale Hurston and  Louis Eugene King. In 2005, it became the first the first HBCU newspaper to be published daily. See the paper's website at http://thehilltoponline.com/ 

** Among his many accomplishments, Michael Thelwell became the founding chair of the Department of Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

--> --> -->

A Bill to Save Lives

Courtesy of

pixabay.com/photos/

Are you aware that there is a bill going through the California State Assembly that needs your support? The bill - AB 392: The California Act to Save Lives – redefines the circumstances under which police officers in the state can use deadly force. Currently, police officers can kill a person even when they have available options other than the use of lethal force.

AB 392 limits the power of police officers to use deadly force and gives them the authority to use deadly force only when they don’t have other options. AB 392 was introduced in February 2019 by California Assembly members Shirley Weber and Kevin McCarthy in response to the murder of Stephon Clark in Sacramento and the recent murders of other young black men at the hands of the police.

The bill is expected to be voted on in the California State Assembly by the end of this month.

AB 392 amends California Penal Code (CPC) section 196 (Justifiable Homicide by a Peace Officer) and CPC 835a (Authority to Use Force) and enacts a new standard for police officers to follow before they use their guns. Read the complete bill here.

Unlike AB 931, an earlier bill, which was also authored by Assembly members Weber and McCarthy for the purpose of restricting police officers’ use of deadly force, that was defeated by the law enforcement community, AB 392 recently gained the backing of key law enforcement groups.

You can see several of the supporters of AB 392 discuss the impact that police shootings have had on their lives and on their family members in this Talking with Henrietta television show called, Getting a Male Perspective. The show was taped on May 23, 2019 and can be seen in its entirety here.

While AB 392 establishes separate standards for non-lethal force, lethal force and non-lethal use of force resulting in an in-custody death, it also allows for an officer to be charged with manslaughter if a mistake is made, for example, in “situations in which the victim is a person other than the person that the peace officer was seeking to arrest, retain in custody, or defend against, or if the necessity for the use of deadly force was created by the peace officer’s criminal negligence.”

AB 392 is supported by such organizations as the ACLU CA, Alliance for Boys an Men of Color, Anti Police-Terror Project, Black Lives Matter, CA, CA Faculty Association, Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice (CURYJ) , PICO (Faith in Action), CA, Silicon Valley DeBug, United Domestic Workers of America (UDW), AFSCME Local 3930, PolicyLink, Youth Justice LA, CA Families United 4 Justice, STOP Coalition

Public protests and concerns over police shootings are making a difference. A second bill, SB 230, which was originally backed by the law enforcement community, “would require each law enforcement agency to maintain a policy that provides guidelines on the use of force, utilizing deescalation techniques and other alternatives to force when feasible, specific guidelines for the application of deadly force, and factors for evaluating and reviewing all use of force incidents, among other things. The bill would require each agency to make their use of force policy accessible to the public. By imposing additional duties on local agencies, this bill would create a state-mandated local program.”

AB 392 was last amended by the Assembly Rules Committee on May 24, 2019 and is expected to be voted on by the full assembly soon. SB 230 was ordered to have a third reading by the CA State Senate on May 16, 2019. Expect a final vote later this month or in early June.

Contact your local state legislators and let them know what you think. Leave your comments below, also. We’d like to know what you think, too.  It is a life and death matter!

 

-->

-->

Recognizing Dorothy Gilliam – a Media Pioneer

Dorothy Gilliam sits with Martin Reynolds at the

Kapor Center in Oakland, CA on March 30, 2019.

It is not everyday that one has the chance to hear from people who broke through barriers to become the first in their field. But, such was the case last Saturday, March 30, when the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education held a media event that featured Dorothy Gilliam, the first African-American, female reporter at the Washington Post. The event was called 'A Conversation with Dorothy Gilliam,” and as you might expect, some of the experiences that Gilliam shared were not only informative, but also quite moving. Gilliam discussed some of the challenging experiences she had working at the paper and reporting on some of the civil rights protests that happened in the American south during the height of the civil rights struggles of the 1960’s.

Her appearance Saturday at the Kapor Center in Oakland came at the end of her three-month book tour to promote her new memoir called, “TRAILBLAZER: A Pioneering Journalist’s Fight to Make the Media Look More Like America.” Those of us who attended the event had a chance to ask her questions after the riveting discussion she had with the Maynard Institute’s co-executive director, Martin Reynolds, who moderated the event.
 

Having a photo taken with Dorothy Gilliam and two of the East Palo Alto Center for Community Media’s board members after her talk, made the event all the more memorable. 

From left, EPACCM board members Elizabeth Jackson, Marie Davis and Henrietta J. Burroughs
stand with Dorothy Gilliam after her presentation at the Kapor Center on March 30, 2019.

You can get more information about Gilliam and her book from her Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pg/DBGilliamTrailblazer/photos/. I, definitely, look forward to speaking with Gilliam in the upcoming months on my show, Talking with Henrietta. I’ll keep you posted, when a taping date is near.

Lady Justice Is Not Blind

Lady Justice
Courtesy of clipart-library.com

Many in our nation have known for some time that our country has two criminal justice systems: one for the rich and the other for the poor.

This fact was not only highlighted, but also underscored when Paul Manafort was sentenced to 47 months in prison this week – well below the federal guidelines that ranged from 19 to 24 years.

If there were ever a case of sentencing disparity, this is it! How do you give someone life in prison for stealing a slice of pizza or for selling or smoking marijuana (which has happened), and give Manafort less than four years in prison for being convicted on eight counts of bank and tax fraud?

The scales of justice are skewed.

 Sen. Cory Booker decried the sentence saying, “One of my friends says we have a criminal justice system that treats you better if you’re rich and guilty than if you’re poor and innocent.”

In justifying the light sentence that he handed to Manafort, Virginia Judge T.S. Ellis III said that Manafort had lived “a blameless life,” before committing his crimes.

When you consider some of Manafort’s experiences and how he made his fortune, this was quite a statement (See the East Palo Alto Today editorial – Lessons we can learn from the career of Paul Manafort, on page 4 of the September 2018 issue.).

Harvard law professor Lawrence Tribe tweeted, Judge Ellis’s assessment that Manafort led an “otherwise blameless life” was proof that he’s unfit to serve on the federal bench. I’ve rarely been more disgusted by a judge’s transparently preferential treatment to a rich white guy who betrayed the law and the nation.

Given the sentence, Sen. Kamala Harris declared, ‘The justice system is broken in America.”

Through all of this, one important question stands out: If our justice system is broken, what are we doing to fix it?

Whatever we’re doing, Manafort’s sentence shows that we aren’t doing enough!

But all, who are disappointed or distressed by Ellis’ decision, can still take heart. Manafort still faces charges for a different set of crimes. He will soon be sentenced for these crimes by District of Columbia Judge Amy Berman Jackson and he could get another ten years, which is the maximum time to be given, added to his current sentence.

We’ll see on this coming Wednesday, March 13, Manafort’s next court date, the type of sentence he gets from Jackson.

Lady Justice is, obviously, not blind, but how do we enable her to see more clearly?

--> --> -->