As our fellow Californians and Americans protest across our country, we must not lose sight of why they are protesting. It’s because of a deep pain that we recognize all too well. The pain of not confronting a dark history that has spanned the life of our country. The pain of recognizing our fathers, uncles, brothers, mothers, sisters, and aunts in the faces of so many Black men and women who were taken from us because of racism and violence. ... read more »

I felt the shifty eyes of the white residents of Beverly Hills on my back. I get it. The sound of rubber bullets being deployed a block away were very much evident from the Black Lives Matter protest gone violent Saturday afternoon. ... read more »

Encourage yourself and one another. NEVER GIVE UP! Things are not as they sometimes appear. Personal experience has taught me. Stay in the game. Obstacles, which appear to be insurmountable with persistence can be overcome. It says, “appear to be insurmountable. The way becomes brighter as you continue to move through the continuum. Concentrate. Focus.  All the time building up your resistance. Establish a mindset of faith..no wavering or doubt. Stay the course. Do not allow yourself to be derailed from your passion nor your dream. Do not devalue your ideas or yourself. You’re worthy. Giving up is wiped from your vocabulary. Giving up is not for you, a conqueror. Conquerors have vision and hope. ... read more »

We knew many of our fellow Angelenos worked on the margins of the previously healthy economy, but that reality didn’t hit home until we saw reports that less than half of adults in Los Angeles County had a job post pandemic. We all probably had at least heard that minorities had worse health outcomes than white Americans, but perhaps that didn’t really register until statistics about the shockingly high death rates of black and Latinos from Covid-19 became reality.  ... read more »

Our annual reflective and resistance-focused celebration of the birth and life of Min. Malcolm X, May 19th and African Liberation Day, May 25th, finds us confronting an especially dangerous, difficult and demanding time. It is a taxing time of dealing with two global interrelated challenges: the pandemic of COVID-19 and the pathology of oppression in which this virus and other natural diseases and social sicknesses are rooted and replicated. Indeed, the pathology of oppression is a pandemic itself, i.e., a world-wide disease or social sickness clearly harmful to human life and even the well-being of the world. ... read more »

I am going to be blunt and bold and just ask, how is your confidence factor doing these days?  It is okay if it is not where you would like it to be right now.  We are all in the same storm.  We may be in different boats, but we are all navigating the same storm.  ... read more »

The country’s largest cities released numbers showing the novel coronavirus is having a disproportionate impact on racial minorities. Epidemiologists say this is because my Black and Brown brothers and sisters often live close together in multigenerational households, work in jobs in which we interact closely with others, and have higher rates of asthma, hypertension, cardiovascular disease and other conditions. Officials in Los Angeles County said that Black people alone accounted for 17% of COVID-19 deaths where race was known – yet African-Americans make up only about 9% of the county’s population.    ... read more »

On May 16, 2020, Larry Aubry passed away, and left a legacy that few can equal, but to which many should aspire. He was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in the time of southern segregation and came to Los Angeles at an early age, attending Jefferson High School. ... read more »

It is the sacred wisdom of our ancestors that a great person lies down in death like a hill, still having height and always pointing the way upward, constantly calling us to the upward paths of our best ideas, values and practices as persons and a people. And so it is with our beloved and honored brother, Larry Aubry, an all-seasons soldier and uncompromising servant of his people, who made transition and ascension, Saturday, May 16, 2020 (6260), and now sits in the sacred circle of the ancestors, among the doers of good, the righteous and the rightfully rewarded. ... read more »

Larry Aubry was a consummate journalist and a dedicated activist. His columns were perfect storms of passion and facts. He had an ability to seamlessly merge institutional knowledge with current affairs. When he put pen to paper, it was to expose injustice and systemic racism. Larry took no hostages. ... read more »

By any measure, South Los Angeles is one of the most vulnerable communities in California—and the nation. ... read more »

Wendy's Window ... read more »

You never wanted to get on Larry’s bad list. It didn’t matter whether you were Black, White, an elected official, or dirty police officer, he’d call you out in hot minute. But Larry would never call you out without speaking to you first. ... read more »

Success On “The Way” Ask Dr. Jeanette Parker™ ... read more »

When I was growing up, I didn’t understand what my father did for a living. I knew what he did was serious and important, not easily described to kids like me. I never asked questions about it, though I did try to figure it out by listening to him around the house, eavesdrop.  I was drawn to his mysterious work because I sensed it was not only something my father did as a job, it was who he was—how he saw the world, what he believed in. These things were one and the same. I knew this because he never came home and put down his briefcase and officially put his work away, relaxed into dinner and home life. His work was truly all encompassing, present in the most casual conversations or when he wasn’t talking at all. And whatever this work was, I assumed only he could do it. It seemed unique to him. ... read more »