Wow! It feels like we were just ringing in 2021 and now it’s time to say goodbye to another year. We are all a little older and hopefully, we are all a little wiser as well.
Just we ran into the new year an all still reeling from the effects of the COVID Pandemic, and while with the help of vaccines have opened the world back up, this OMNICRON variant has us all stumped. What exactly is the new normal?
2021 started with great promise as Black America celebrated the election of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. Our brothers and sisters in Georgia united to make Stacey Abram’s vision of a new Georgia a reality by electing the two democratic senators, including Georgia’s first African-American Senator, Reverend Raphael Warnock.
But the true state of America came to a realization on January 6, 2021, when former president, Donald Trump and his band of bandits, ignited a full-blown insurrection on the United States Capitol. All of the U.S. House of Representatives feared for their lives and the world sat in awe and wonder, speculating on what America’s response would have looked like if those thousand, if not hundreds of thousands of insurrectionists, terrorists, law breakers, vandals or whatever term used, would have been Black people.
But in the end, America did the “right thing” and the Biden/Harris ticket was sworn in on January 20, 2021 with little distractions. The Biden Harris administration went immediately to work, getting vaccines to the people, bringing the initial wave of COVID under control. As the world began to re-open, businesses were reassured and people started working again. And although this was a “New Normal,” it oddly felt somewhat normal again.
We also saw some semblance of justice in America when a predominantly White jury convicted police officer, Derek Chauvin for the heinous and brutal murder of George Floyd. We also saw the conviction of three White Georgia men for the murder of Ahmad Aubrey. While we still have a long way to go, and the conversation about “defund the police” has taken drastic turns to the right and to the left, cities and states across American have started implementing several and various forms of reallocating services from the police to deal with mental health, non-violent offenders, and other forms of conflict which have traditionally led to various negative outcomes from the police to predominantly men and women of color.
But all has not been good. America also saw Kyle Rittenhouse found innocent of murder when after gunning down three people with an assault rifle while participating in a Black Lives Matter protest over the killing of George Floyd. But we all know that if a Black man had been the shooter, the verdict would have been drastically different.
We have also have seen laws passed in mostly conservative red states to begin the suppression of the Black vote, forcing Black America back into a pernicious reality.
Georgia, Texas and a variety of other states have passed state laws in an attempt to ensure that what was accomplish in the 2020 election, cannot be repeated again.
Hopefully, the John Lewis voter’s rights legislation, approved by congress but still needs Senate approval, will somehow level the playing field. But as we enter 2022, this legislation seems to be, while not dead at least on life support.
Then there is life here on the Homefront (Los Angeles/Southern California) and while things are certainly better we have much to address as well. Homelessness is on the rise with no real solution insight. Many local and state level elected officials are calling this their priority, but we need real solutions and building all the affordable housing inside of communities of color is not and never has been the answer.
We must find ways to build housing more affordably and find ways to remove much of the bureaucracy that delays projects and begin moving not only California, but specifically Black California forward. We need more jobs, more contracts and more opportunities to advance our community in a unified way.
What we have seen is an amazing demonstration of Black Love and Pride as we have united on various issues during this COVID filled world to help those struggling to overcome the effects of the pandemic. We saw community-based organizations like the Los Angeles Brotherhood Crusade, The Urban League, Mothers in Action and other organizations in partnership with our local labor community work together to provide millions of dollars of free food, clothes and other gifts to families in need throughout 2021. We saw our Black churches and faith-based community lead the efforts to educate our community on the importance of vaccinations, and provided free testing and vaccinations all over our community. We also saw our elected officials make big moves this year. Councilmembers Curren Price and Marqueece Harris Dawson have implemented “guaranteed income programs within their district to help their constituents not only survive but create space to be able to ensure a certain quality of life despite their current financial situations. We saw Assemblymember Mike Gipson and the California Legislature have provided millions in additional funding to hospitals like Martin Luther King Community Hospital to enhance the level of care that there already over worked and overburdened staff have had to endure throughout the pandemic. We saw Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer who not only lead the way on police reform as the Chairman of the Public Safety commission, but also provided food, jobs, job training and other resources throughout his district to insure that everyone within their community had what they needed to make it through. And then there is our newest State Senator Sydney Kamlager-Dove who through her sheer will, determination and prolific negotiating skills managed to deliver hundreds of millions of dollars of new job, police re-allocation dollars and investment into our very own community.
We have seen Supervisor Holly Mitchell (the Sentinels “Person of the Year”) provide unparalleled leadership across her district and throughout Los Angeles County. We saw land stolen from the Bruce Family returned thanks to the leadership of Supervisor Janice Hahn, Senator Steve Bradford and Governor Gavin Newsom.
Speaking of the Governor, we also saw an unprecedented attack on the Governor by the republican party who tried to recall him despite the fact that his leadership through COVID had and has proven to be the right decision from the start of the pandemic through today. But again, our community was able to see through the smoke screen and not get fooled into electing a Black Face with white thoughts like Larry Elder and overturned the recall efforts despite wasting millions of dollars on this “recall” effort.
As we head into the new year lead by our Faith, Our Love and Our Commitment to a better future for all. We lean on the things that have brought us through any and every challenge that we have ever faced. A sheer will to succeed and a refusal to fail despite the obstacles that we face. We all know that Black Lives Matter and that does not need to simply be a slogan that we wear on a T-Shirt we post in the window of our business or paste on our social media accounts. Black Lives Matter has to be how we all live our lives. Corporate America has to continue not only to make attempts at stating they support the effort, but spend their dollars in a specific and direct way to show that the vitality of our community matters. They need to hire in a way that is inclusive, unapologetic and intentional to create opportunities for all.
The Black Community is and has always been STRONG! Nothing that is thrown at us is new, we have seen it all before. We must embrace everything that is GOOD within our community, the small victories and the large ones. We must continue to fight against the BAD, united in our unwavering faith for a better future for all and we must embrace the UNIMAGINABLE, the good and the bad because remember A Black Woman elected Vice President of the United States was unimaginable, a police officer being convicted for the murder of a Black man was UNIMAGINABLE, corporate America investing hundreds of millions of dollars in Black banks was unimaginable. So let’s not limit ourselves, our vision that our community can grow and prosper that home ownership is attainable, that our businesses can be bigger and better than ever before, that we can do for ourselves what we hoped others would do for us. IMAGINE THE POSSIBLITIES.
GOD BLESS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR
THE LOS ANGELES SENTINEL
