Category: Opinion

Chief John Keene | Special to California Black Media Partners It seems media coverage of Black History Month this year is getting lost in the merry-go-round of breaking news stories– from shifting COVID guidelines and skyrocketing food and gas prices to shocking crime stories and growing concerns about our military getting involved in Ukraine. Add…

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent Barry Bonds stands as baseball’s all-time home run king, with 762 bombs over a career that lasted more than two decades. With his fearsome and sweet lefty swing, Bonds also set the single-season home record with 73 in 2001, a year in which he also drew…

By Roger Caldwell, NNPA Newswire Contributor With the election of President Biden and Vice President Harris, they have quickly delivered for the American people, while helping our country recover from a pandemic, and an economic crisis. It is very easy for the Republicans to talk about what the Biden team has done wrong, but with…

By Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr Even before Coach Brian Flores filed a class-action lawsuit against the National Football League claiming the league discriminated against Black coaches in their hiring practices, it was pretty clear that professional football has a race issue. The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central…

A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand By Congressman James E. Clyburn, House Majority Whip (D-SC) I listened intently this morning as our 46th President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris addressed the nation from Statuary Hall observing the first anniversary of last year’s insurrection. I found myself reflecting upon the attack on Pearl…

By U.S Small Business Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman Last week, ahead of Small Business Saturday, I stopped by Lee’s Flowers on historic U Street in Washington, D.C. – the oldest Black-owned florist in the city. During my visit, I picked up a beautiful floral arrangement and joined millions of Americans who shopped small this weekend…

By Congressman James E. Clyburn (D-SC), House Majority Whip Last year, Joe Biden and Congressional Democrats promised voters that if given the chance we would do the things necessary to combat COVID-19, rebuild America’s families and their communities, and restore faith in the promise of America. I often say that we can be no more…

By Dr. John E. Warren, Publisher,  The San Diego Voice & Viewpoint As so many of us in this country pause to celebrate Thanksgiving Day, it seems like a good time to remind all of us that every day should be a day for giving thanks. We should consider how blessed we are as a…

Nadine Burke Harris, MD, MPH | Special to California Black Media Partner Our state experienced the most devastating point of the pandemic last winter. More than 21,000 Californians were hospitalized with COVID-19 in the last week of December, and we lost 18,518 mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers to this deadly virus in January. The light…

By Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., National Newspaper Publishers Association President and CEO Over the past year and a half, New Jerseyans of all backgrounds have struggled to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic and economic insecurity. Friends and family got sick, and tragically, some passed away from the COVID-19 virus. Data collected in June and…

By Dr. John E. Warren, Publisher, The San Diego Voice and Viewpoint Veterans Day was created as “Armistice Day” on November 11, 1919, the first anniversary of the end of World War I. It became a national holiday by an act of Congress in 1938. As we honor the memory of those who served in…

By Cheryl Smith, Publisher of I Messenger Media and Texas Metro News I love teaching! When I was eight-years old, my friends were playing “house” and “doctor.” I was in another room with my sister, two younger cousins and any neighborhood child I could round up on our street in Newark, NJ, and we were…

By Glenda Glover, Ph.D., JD, CPA, is President of Tennessee State University, and International President and CEO, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have changed the college landscape and have provided a significant return on investment. Our country cannot reach its goals without strong, viable, sustainable HBCUs – goals necessary…

Dr. Lenore Tate | Special to California Black Media Partners Many of us are tired, stressed and impatient having to live our lives under this seemingly never-ending pandemic. In early spring, many of us were hopeful that COVID-19 was coming to an end. We began making plans for the summer, from visiting family and friends…

By Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., President and CEO,  National Newspaper Publishers Association There is an old African proverb that captures one of the challenges that too many financially successful Black-owned business leaders face today in America. That proverb is “Your earned riches may engender envy and jealous criticism but be not dismayed by the…

Bocchit Edmond, Haitian Ambassador to U.S. | Special to California Black Media Partners The pictures carry the weight of history. They are shocking in their own right, of course – desperate human beings, like most immigrants of old time to the United States of America from the old continent, carrying their worldly possessions, but attempting…

Dr. Lenore Tate |  Special to California Black Media Partners Our children are our most precious resource. They hold in their hands the future of our community, our state, and our nation. Likewise, we must hold them, too, under our protective guidance as we shape them into responsible and caring adults. Now, that most of…

By Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., President and CEO, National Newspaper Publishers Association Even as the pandemic has laid bare societal inequities that have been eroding the foundation of our democracy, political leaders in Washington and in state capitols are mired in a level of rancor and partisanship not seen since the ideological struggles over…

National Alliance on Mental Illness Contra Costa (NAMI CC) has provided critical non-clinical supports to individuals and their families since its establishment over 30 years ago. However in the last seven months the work has been more intense as the agency became a subcontractor for the FEMA-funded CalHOPE Project administered by the California Department of…

Rep. Barbara Lee, U.S. Congresswoman for the 13th District of California Just as it seemed we as a country were coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, we find ourselves faced with another challenge as the Delta variant of the virus spreads more rapidly throughout our communities. On top of the pandemic, we are also heading…

Rick Callender  On September 14 a special election will be held to determine whether Governor Gavin Newsom should be recalled. This is only the fourth time in American history – that a state has held a gubernatorial recall election. The last gubernatorial recall election in California took place nearly 20 years ago. This recall election…

Hardy Brown Sr. | Publisher Emeritus, Black Voice News California will hold a recall election on September 14th to recall California Governor Gavin Newsom. The effort is being funded by the right-wing White supremacist leadership of the Donald Trump Republican Party.  This effort is happening on our watch and it is up to us to…

NNPA NEWSWIRE — One of the most recent acts of insurance company greed happened with UnitedHealthcare, the nation’s largest insurance provider. Just recently, the insurance giant announced it would no longer cover patients’ nonurgent visits to the emergency room retroactively. Yes, you read that correctly. An American insurance company is no longer going to cover…

NNPA NEWSWIRE — This month, we are again making progress on one significant front in the fight against poverty. American families will begin receiving monthly Child Tax Credit checks on July 15; thanks to an expansion of the popular program in the American Rescue Plan (ARP), that was signed into law by President Biden in…

THE WESTSIDE GAZETTE – Don’t get bamboozled by educators, “scholars” and media reporters that you love. School resources, school facilities, school books and school procedures have always been determined by racial motivations. The Gantt Report By Lucius Gantt Critical race theory (CRT) is an academic movement of civil rights scholars and activists in the United…