latimes--2020-06-12--Nonracist to antiracist: Seven rapid culture shifts since the killing of George Floyd

Brandon Laushaul marched to the Martin Luther King Jr. monument in Compton in dress shoes , slacks and , despite the heat , a dress shirt and egg-colored sweater .
It was Sunday , after all .
More than that , formal attire seemed especially appropriate to Laushaul .
As he marched with thousands of others in his proud city , an energy of unity seemed to have taken hold , part of a cultural reset in L.A. and beyond after so many days of uncertainty and fear .
“ I ’ m a Compton native , and when I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ my city , I had to come out , ” said the 23-year-old Cerritos College student .
“ We can all only hold in so much.
” Something , finally , might be changing , Lashaul continued , and for him , it all goes back to the history of struggle led by Black Americans in the past .
“ Going back to the great Martin Luther King , he gave us an avenue to be heard , utilizing our constitutional rights , ” Laushaul said .
“ And I feel that ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , at his monument , to exemplify that.
” The feeling is everywhere : A cultural shift over racial justice and inequality is happening , one that began less than three weeks ago but that ’ s been gestating a lot longer .
Even for ever-shifting Los Angeles , the last few weekends have offered the kind of pole-shifting change that would otherwise be spread out over years , not days .
After we all watched the death of George Floyd with a police officer ’ s knee on his neck for nearly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ city after city .
In less than a week , Southern Californians went from gingerly stepping out in masks as businesses began reopening after more than three months in pandemic lockdown to joining massive street protests demanding justice for Floyd but also for Breonna Taylor in Kentucky , Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia , and too many other unarmed Black men and women killed by police .
In a way , demonstrators said in interviews over the past week , it was as though there was finally something to leave the house for , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ first Friday , several small businesses in downtown were vandalized , in many cases by people who stuck to the edges of the peaceful protests .
And on Saturday , curfews were called throughout the city and county — another unprecedented occurrence in L.A. in recent decades — as a day of peaceful demonstrations throughout the city turned into a night of property destruction along Melrose Avenue .
On Sunday , May 31 , National Guard troops rolled in .
But the sense of chaos and disorder subsided , and a trickle of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , like an L.A. spring .
As riot police stood down , and some concessions were made to protest demands , the peaceful demonstrations didn ’ t stop .
They continued and even grew .
The movement seemed to shift .
Now , the call was not only for an end of police brutality but maybe the entire idea of policing as we know it .
And more people joined .
By this past Sunday , after tens of thousands streamed through the streets of Hollywood , Compton , Santa Ana and dozens @ @ @ @ @ @ @ perfect late-spring sunny weather , it was clear that this movement .
These are a few key societal trends emerging from the ongoing nationwide protests calling for an end to police brutality and for racial justice .
The most key shift is a new cultural consensus : It is no longer enough to be nonracist .
People should strive to be antiracist .
That is , someone who actively works to end racism in society and does not passively ignore racist actions or comments in their surroundings .
The growing numbers of non-Black @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the nation show a turning point in understanding the need to frontally combat racism .
For too long , Black activists were joined by too few non-Black allies .
“ To see it again is just exhausting , ” said Irene Tello , a Compton native who marched last Sunday alongside Black neighbors and counterparts .
Yet the scope of the protests broke into previously unseen connections .
When a conservative political figure like Mitt Romney is also saying the words , “ Black lives matter , ” you know something has changed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ How to Be an Antiracist ” and founder of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center , has said that true .
Yet he ’ s put a target date on the matter .
“ I don ’ t know whether every single person can be antiracist by 2030 , but I do have hope that every racist policy could be eliminated by then .
That would be great , ” Kendi told Erin Aubry Kaplan in an .
“ White people are seeing racial injustice , they ’ re seeing Breonna [ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and they ’ re seeing the cause of death was not Breonna or George ; it ’ s racist policing , ” Kendi went on .
“ Now they are seeking to transform the policy , and that ’ s a good thing.
” The process is happening on many fronts .
One of the most dramatic : the toppling of Confederate statues .
Some of the actions are being done by protesters , but many monument removals are being sanctioned by government officials across the South .
And though it was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ worth noting there ’ s a video game , “ Treachery in Beatdown City , ” generating interest for the way it promotes antiracism .
The Times ’ Todd Martens described it as one of the “ most relevant , of-the-moment video games of 2020.
” The Black-led protests early on in Minneapolis and in the major cities that followed have not just been about spectacle or release , the sort of typical media narratives around civil unrest .
They are organized to buoy specific policy demands , and so far , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ goal set by the demonstrations is to defund police departments .
In Los Angeles , the mayor and City Council announced they would formally seek ways to decrease LAPD funding by up to $ 150 million .
And just like that , in a matter of days , what may have once been considered an improbable outcome of the demonstrations is now being treated as legitimately .
Up and down the pop scale , from late-night comedy news shows to local broadcasts in Los Angeles , the term “ defund ” or “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ terms hit what is referred to as peak popularity ( or a value of 100 in maximum of Internet search interest ) according to Google Trends on June 5 and 6 .
Media figures of every stripe are already chiming in .
“ ‘ Defund ’ means that Black & Brown communities are asking for the same budget priorities that White communities have already created for themselves , ” wrote Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ( D-N.Y. ) on Twitter .
“ People asked in other ways , but were always told , ‘ No @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ?
’ So they found the line item.
” The theater of the possible has gone even further .
Core among the ideas dancing closer to the mainstream is imagining a world without police — at all .
“ Absolutely this is about abolition , ” Melina Abdullah , one of the leaders of the police-reform movement in Los Angeles and organizer with Black Lives Matter-L.A. , told cheering demonstrators at the George Floyd memorial in downtown L.A. on Monday .
“ It ’ s really important when we say abolition , we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that we are now submitting to , and also building something new , ” Abdullah said .
Priscilla Ocen , a professor at Loyola Law School and member of the Sheriff ’ s Department Civilian Oversight Commission , watched from a safe distance as a legal observer that day , in a double mask .
Ocen said later that “ outside of activist circles and outside of intellectual spaces in Black and brown communities ” police abolition and prison abolition were usually treated as fringe ideas .
“ I think in the space @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has taken on a different tenor , it ’ s become a mainstream alternative to how policing functions , and the state violence that ’ s attached to it , ” Ocen said .
“ It ’ s been a huge shift in a short period of time but it ’ s actually decades in the making , especially abolition.
” So far , Minneapolis City Council leaders have declared they will seek to disband its police department and rethink public safety in a way that relies on mental health and social workers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ routinely handle .
Here in L.A. , there ’ s not a lot of such talk at the elected level — yet .
But there are rumblings .
United Teachers Los Angeles , fresh off its 2019 strike , has an effort to eliminate the Los Angeles School Police Department .
Reckonings in the press and publishing Change also has come to an American institution that is among the most reluctant to be in the news — the news business itself .
Since the George Floyd protests began , Black journalists and journalists @ @ @ @ @ @ @ biases and racism within the semi-sanctified halls of America ’ s legacy news organizations .
It started with the uproar over a column by Sen. Tom Cotton in the op-ed section of the New York Times .
Staff members on the news side organized and decided to publicly defy the strict rules related to social media held by the N.Y. Times , tweeting en masse : “ Running this puts black @ NYTimes staff in danger.
” Ever since , an outpouring of testimonies from journalists of color related to discrimination , mistreatment @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stopped , including at this very newspaper , where on Tuesday , Executive Editor Norman Pearlstine sent a memo to staff members pledging even more changes aimed at hiring and promoting more journalists from underrepresented communities .
The editor also said that effective immediately , The Times would change its style to capitalize the term “ Black ” when referring to people of the African diaspora .
The reckoning is real .
After facing a public airing of lingering internal grievances over racism and discrimination , the editors of Bon Appetit , Variety @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or gone on leave .
At the historic Philadelphia daily , the resignation of Stan Wischnowski came after the newspaper published a headline reading “ .
” And over at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette , a different sort of maelstrom brewed over a Black female reporter ’ s postings on social media , with other staffers coming to the defense of 27-year-old Alexis Johnson , who was barred from covering the protests in her city after highlighting an irony in how images of disorder are treated when they involve white fans at a country @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on Tuesday , Pearlstine seemed to suggest that the after-effects of the George Floyd protests may transform the news industry in a more fundamental way : “ We don ’ t think twice in saying that antifascism would be part of our mandate as a journalistic institution .
Antiracism should be similarly central to our core.
” Meanwhile , after writer L.L .
McKinney started the social media hashtag # PublishingPaidMe , the disparity between white authors and authors of color has been laid bare , sparking serious conversations about racism in publishing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ way to America ’ s major boardrooms .
In recent days , companies large and small have publicly stated a commitment to social justice and to ending racism , moves that in some sectors have been met with a healthy degree of skepticism .
U.S. companies have donated more than $ 450 million to civil rights groups since the George Floyd protests began , according to a review by the Financial Times .
On social media , major brands have stated their positions , among them Netflix , which tweeted on May 30 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be complicit , ” in a theme that has multiplied among brands in the days since .
Facebook , Amazon , Google , Spotify , Verizon , Goldman Sachs and Target are among companies that pledged gifts to social justice causes of $ 10 million or more , reports said .
Warner Music Group announced a $ 100 million fund with a foundation last Wednesday .
Two days later , Sony made the same fund announcement , a pledge of $ 100 million .
But activists have pointed out inconsistencies in messaging versus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ over Black lives .
After NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell stated the league was wrong to not listen to its players about racism , he was challenged to prove it by ensuring a team would hire quarterback Colin Kaepernick .
And when Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg on Sunday announced a donation of $ 10 million to social justice causes , critics cast doubt on his intentions , pointing to his refusal to bar President Trump from posting comments to Facebook that many see as promoting violence , The Times ’ Johana Bhuiyan reported .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ a work stoppage to protest Zuckerberg ’ s justification of keeping Trump ’ s posts .
Similarly , CBS was called out for letting police use its property during demonstrations in L.A. , and Amazon was admonished for partnering with police in surveillance products .
Will the “ bandwagon ” subside ?
For skeptics of the outpouring of corporate commitment to racial justice , companies might be responding with jitters to findings of a new poll that showed up to 60 % of U.S. consumers would boycott or buy from a brand based @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ It ’ s good that they ’ re writing checks , ” said Abdullah , in an interview Thursday , referring to the surge of corporate interest in the new movement .
“ We have to make sure that those checks are directed to the right organizations .
We need to make sure that the war on Black people doesn ’ t get buried under a larger quote-unquote ‘ diversity ’ effort , where Black people often become erased and invisibilized.
” Wayne Nelson has a T-shirt store in Pasadena and has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ near downtown L.A. selling lots of black T-shirts with white sans serif lettering spelling out political statements relevant to the moment , involving themes related to Black Lives Matter .
He held up masks he just had made , black and printed with white letters : “ I can ’ t breathe.
” Other bestsellers are his Nipsey Hussle tees .
“ There ’ s a whole lot of ways this system chokes African Americans , ” Nelson said , under a hot afternoon sun , referring to his masks .
“ That @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I can ’ t breathe.
” He ’ s part of a cottage industry of apparel and gear that has accompanied the major street happenings of our era in L.A .
The last major outpouring of new momentous tees came with the death of basketball great Kobe Bryant .
Nelson said he was there too .
“ My talent is buying and selling , I listen to what people want , I go ahead and get it and bring it back to them , ” Nelson said .
As soon as officials announced @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all times in public spaces , Nelson said : “ I knew what I was selling , wasn ’ t no doubt in my mind.
” The Black Lives Matter demonstrations have added a new layer of meaning for him , he added , as he welcomed his daughter and niece , who just then arrived to the grassy lawn of Grand Park , west of City Hall , proudly wearing their own Black Lives Matter T-shirts .
They were ready to sell .
Madison Calderon had gauze , bandages and a box @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had made herself , all in a wagon she brought down to L.A. City Hall , so she could offer help to the throngs of people out to honor George Floyd however she could .
The 22-year-old from Pasadena wore a face covering as she described her activities last Friday .
“ I ’ ve been going to the 99 Cent store and just getting as much as we can , I ’ ve been getting like six loads a day , ” Calderon said .
“ I ’ ve given out two @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ m glad I haven ’ t had to use them.
” There has been more mutual aid happening at the George Floyd demonstrations in L.A. than during any of the recent string of popular protest movements that have swept through this city in the last decade — arguably more prevalent than during the antiwar movement , the immigrant-rights marches and the women ’ s marches , demonstrators said .
Mostly it has been disposable water bottles .
They ’ re piled up on sidewalks in packets of 24 , the kind that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pharmacy chains , left there by volunteers .
Everywhere a marcher turns , there ’ s someone within reach willing to give them hand sanitizer , a snack , a piece of fruit or a plastic bottle of water .
In Compton , Michelle Merritt , longtime leader of Compton Girl Scout Troop 943 , stopped her van amid the march route and began handing out bottles of water from ice chests with help from her daughters .
“ Because I ’ m 61 , I can ’ t do a lot of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ But I can pass out water , and that ’ s what I ’ m doing.
” This spirit is most prevalent and concentrated around City Hall , where medic stations have been set up during the big demonstrations in case of any injuries .
For Calderon , who attended the Women ’ s March and said it “ wasn ’ t the same vibe , ” these anti-police brutality protests offer a chance for anyone to get involved .
Much of the organizing is happening through social media .
“ I want @ @ @ @ @ @ @ constructive and positive way .
My friends have been posting about resources , and you can put on a Band-Aid , you can cook rice , you can come out and be helpful , ” Calderon said .
“ On top of that , quarantine I feel has made everyone come out , it ’ s just worse , on worse , on worse , and I hope that makes people want to change it .
”

Brandon Laushaul marched to the Martin Luther King Jr. monument in Compton in dress shoes, slacks and, despite the heat, a dress shirt and egg-colored sweater. It was Sunday, after all. More than that, formal attire seemed especially appropriate to Laushaul. As he marched with thousands of others in his proud city, an energy of unity seemed to have taken hold, part of a cultural reset in L.A. and beyond after so many days of uncertainty and fear.
“I’m a Compton native, and when I heard they were having a march in my city, I had to come out,” said the 23-year-old Cerritos College student. “We can all only hold in so much.”
Something, finally, might be changing, Lashaul continued, and for him, it all goes back to the history of struggle led by Black Americans in the past.
“Going back to the great Martin Luther King, he gave us an avenue to be heard, utilizing our constitutional rights,” Laushaul said. “And I feel that’s the whole reason to be here, at his monument, to exemplify that.”
The feeling is everywhere: A cultural shift over racial justice and inequality is happening, one that began less than three weeks ago but that’s been gestating a lot longer. Even for ever-shifting Los Angeles, the last few weekends have offered the kind of pole-shifting change that would otherwise be spread out over years, not days.
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After we all watched the death of George Floyd with a police officer’s knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes, protests popped up in city after city.
Hundreds join a Black Lives Matter-L.A. memorial service and funeral procession honor George Floyd in downtown Los Angeles on June 8, 2020. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
In less than a week, Southern Californians went from gingerly stepping out in masks as businesses began reopening after more than three months in pandemic lockdown to joining massive street protests demanding justice for Floyd but also for Breonna Taylor in Kentucky, Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, and too many other unarmed Black men and women killed by police. In a way, demonstrators said in interviews over the past week, it was as though there was finally something to leave the house for, something that really mattered.
By that first Friday, several small businesses in downtown were vandalized, in many cases by people who stuck to the edges of the peaceful protests. And on Saturday, curfews were called throughout the city and county — another unprecedented occurrence in L.A. in recent decades — as a day of peaceful demonstrations throughout the city turned into a night of property destruction along Melrose Avenue. On Sunday, May 31, National Guard troops rolled in.
It was lockdown reloaded.
But the sense of chaos and disorder subsided, and a trickle of optimism began poking up from the firmament, like an L.A. spring. As riot police stood down, and some concessions were made to protest demands, the peaceful demonstrations didn’t stop. They continued and even grew.
The movement seemed to shift. Now, the call was not only for an end of police brutality but maybe the entire idea of policing as we know it. And more people joined. By this past Sunday, after tens of thousands streamed through the streets of Hollywood, Compton, Santa Ana and dozens of other demonstrations across Southern California under perfect late-spring sunny weather, it was clear that this movement wasn’t going anywhere .
These are a few key societal trends emerging from the ongoing nationwide protests calling for an end to police brutality and for racial justice.
The antiracist shift
Mek Bitul held up a sign with the words “This Is the Tipping Point!!!” in front of Los Angeles City Hall, joining a Black Lives Matter-LA protest on Friday, June 5, 2020. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
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The most key shift is a new cultural consensus: It is no longer enough to be nonracist. People should strive to be antiracist. That is, someone who actively works to end racism in society and does not passively ignore racist actions or comments in their surroundings.
The growing numbers of non-Black faces at demonstrations in L.A. and across the nation show a turning point in understanding the need to frontally combat racism. For too long, Black activists were joined by too few non-Black allies.
“To see it again is just exhausting,” said Irene Tello, a Compton native who marched last Sunday alongside Black neighbors and counterparts.
Yet the scope of the protests broke into previously unseen connections. When a conservative political figure like Mitt Romney is also saying the words, “Black lives matter,” you know something has changed.
Ibram X. Kendi, author of “How to Be an Antiracist” and founder of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center, has said that true change will take time . Yet he’s put a target date on the matter.
“I don’t know whether every single person can be antiracist by 2030, but I do have hope that every racist policy could be eliminated by then. That would be great,” Kendi told Erin Aubry Kaplan in an interview in The Times .
“White people are seeing racial injustice, they’re seeing Breonna [Taylor] and George [Floyd], and they’re seeing the cause of death was not Breonna or George; it’s racist policing,” Kendi went on. “Now they are seeking to transform the policy, and that’s a good thing.”
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Among the sign messages held at a gathering to protest the killing of George Floyd, “Filipinx for Black Lives” and a refutation of the phrase “All lives matter” with the question “But did you die?” (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
The process is happening on many fronts. One of the most dramatic: the toppling of Confederate statues. Some of the actions are being done by protesters, but many monument removals are being sanctioned by government officials across the South.
And though it was released in March, it’s worth noting there’s a video game, “Treachery in Beatdown City,” generating interest for the way it promotes antiracism. The Times’ Todd Martens described it as one of the “most relevant, of-the-moment video games of 2020.”
Defund the police
“Defund LAPD” signs held by marchers in downtown Los Angeles on June 5 to protest police abuse and the killing of George Floyd. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
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The Black-led protests early on in Minneapolis and in the major cities that followed have not just been about spectacle or release, the sort of typical media narratives around civil unrest. They are organized to buoy specific policy demands, and so far, the tactic has been working.
An immediate goal set by the demonstrations is to defund police departments. In Los Angeles, the mayor and City Council announced they would formally seek ways to decrease LAPD funding by up to $150 million.
And just like that, in a matter of days, what may have once been considered an improbable outcome of the demonstrations is now being treated as legitimately on the table .
A passenger in a car on Sunset Boulevard displays a “Defund LAPD” sign. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
Up and down the pop scale, from late-night comedy news shows to local broadcasts in Los Angeles, the term “defund” or “defunding” entered the lexicon. Both terms hit what is referred to as peak popularity (or a value of 100 in maximum of Internet search interest) according to Google Trends on June 5 and 6. Media figures of every stripe are already chiming in.
“‘Defund’ means that Black & Brown communities are asking for the same budget priorities that White communities have already created for themselves,” wrote Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Twitter on Tuesday . “People asked in other ways, but were always told, ‘No, how do you pay for it?’ So they found the line item.”
Abolition
Hundreds of protesters in Hollywood march against police brutality and the death of George Floyd on May 31. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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The theater of the possible has gone even further. Core among the ideas dancing closer to the mainstream is imagining a world without police — at all. “Absolutely this is about abolition,” Melina Abdullah, one of the leaders of the police-reform movement in Los Angeles and organizer with Black Lives Matter-L.A., told cheering demonstrators at the George Floyd memorial in downtown L.A. on Monday.
“It’s really important when we say abolition, we mean tearing down the system of policing that we are now submitting to, and also building something new,” Abdullah said.
Priscilla Ocen, a professor at Loyola Law School and member of the Sheriff’s Department Civilian Oversight Commission, watched from a safe distance as a legal observer that day, in a double mask. Ocen said later that “outside of activist circles and outside of intellectual spaces in Black and brown communities” police abolition and prison abolition were usually treated as fringe ideas.
The words “Abolish Police” seen spray-painted on the sidewalk June 5 in downtown Los Angeles. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
“I think in the space of the last couple of weeks it has taken on a different tenor, it’s become a mainstream alternative to how policing functions, and the state violence that’s attached to it,” Ocen said. “It’s been a huge shift in a short period of time but it’s actually decades in the making, especially abolition.”
So far, Minneapolis City Council leaders have declared they will seek to disband its police department and rethink public safety in a way that relies on mental health and social workers for many of the domestic calls police routinely handle. Here in L.A., there’s not a lot of such talk at the elected level — yet. But there are rumblings. United Teachers Los Angeles, fresh off its 2019 strike, has already pledged to support an effort to eliminate the Los Angeles School Police Department.
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Reckonings in the press and publishing
Thousands of protesters gathered on June 3 at the Los Angeles Civic Center to demonstrate for justice after the George Floyd killing by police. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
Change also has come to an American institution that is among the most reluctant to be in the news — the news business itself. Since the George Floyd protests began, Black journalists and journalists of color broadly have begun confronting systemic biases and racism within the semi-sanctified halls of America’s legacy news organizations.
It started with the uproar over a column by Sen. Tom Cotton in the op-ed section of the New York Times. Staff members on the news side organized and decided to publicly defy the strict rules related to social media held by the N.Y. Times, tweeting en masse: “Running this puts black @NYTimes staff in danger.”
Editorial page editor James Bennet resigned last Sunday.
Ever since, an outpouring of testimonies from journalists of color related to discrimination, mistreatment or racism in their workplaces have not stopped, including at this very newspaper, where on Tuesday, Executive Editor Norman Pearlstine sent a memo to staff members pledging even more changes aimed at hiring and promoting more journalists from underrepresented communities.
The editor also said that effective immediately, The Times would change its style to capitalize the term “Black” when referring to people of the African diaspora.
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The reckoning is real. After facing a public airing of lingering internal grievances over racism and discrimination, the editors of Bon Appetit, Variety and the Philadelphia Inquirer also have resigned or gone on leave.
At the historic Philadelphia daily, the resignation of Stan Wischnowski came after the newspaper published a headline reading “ Buildings Matter, Too .” And over at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, a different sort of maelstrom brewed over a Black female reporter’s postings on social media, with other staffers coming to the defense of 27-year-old Alexis Johnson, who was barred from covering the protests in her city after highlighting an irony in how images of disorder are treated when they involve white fans at a country music concert.
Speaking on PBS NewsHour on Tuesday, Pearlstine seemed to suggest that the after-effects of the George Floyd protests may transform the news industry in a more fundamental way: “We don’t think twice in saying that antifascism would be part of our mandate as a journalistic institution. Antiracism should be similarly central to our core.”
Meanwhile, after writer L.L. McKinney started the social media hashtag #PublishingPaidMe, the disparity between white authors and authors of color has been laid bare, sparking serious conversations about racism in publishing.
Corporate commitment
Retired NFL wide receiver and hall of famer Terrell Owens at a protest outside of SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, demanding that the NFL apologize to former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Owens and other protesters took a knee for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, the time George Floyd had a police officer’s knee on his neck before he died as a result. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
The shifts have reached all the way to America’s major boardrooms. In recent days, companies large and small have publicly stated a commitment to social justice and to ending racism, moves that in some sectors have been met with a healthy degree of skepticism.
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U.S. companies have donated more than $450 million to civil rights groups since the George Floyd protests began, according to a review by the Financial Times. On social media, major brands have stated their positions, among them Netflix, which tweeted on May 30: “To be silent is to be complicit,” in a theme that has multiplied among brands in the days since.
Facebook, Amazon, Google, Spotify, Verizon, Goldman Sachs and Target are among companies that pledged gifts to social justice causes of $10 million or more, reports said. Warner Music Group announced a $100 million fund with a foundation last Wednesday. Two days later, Sony made the same fund announcement, a pledge of $100 million.
But activists have pointed out inconsistencies in messaging versus actions in the flurry of corporate posturing over Black lives. After NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell stated the league was wrong to not listen to its players about racism, he was challenged to prove it by ensuring a team would hire quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
Katie Fuller, 74, of Inglewood, right, holding sign, joins protesters June 11 in the Forum parking lot, across the street from SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. Among their demands: that the NFL apologize to former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
And when Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg on Sunday announced a donation of $10 million to social justice causes, critics cast doubt on his intentions, pointing to his refusal to bar President Trump from posting comments to Facebook that many see as promoting violence, The Times’ Johana Bhuiyan reported. Employees at the social media giant organized a work stoppage to protest Zuckerberg’s justification of keeping Trump’s posts.
Similarly, CBS was called out for letting police use its property during demonstrations in L.A., and Amazon was admonished for partnering with police in surveillance products. Will the “bandwagon” subside? For skeptics of the outpouring of corporate commitment to racial justice, companies might be responding with jitters to findings of a new poll that showed up to 60% of U.S. consumers would boycott or buy from a brand based on its response to the protests.
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“It’s good that they’re writing checks,” said Abdullah, in an interview Thursday, referring to the surge of corporate interest in the new movement. “We have to make sure that those checks are directed to the right organizations. We need to make sure that the war on Black people doesn’t get buried under a larger quote-unquote ‘diversity’ effort, where Black people often become erased and invisibilized.”
Antiracist apparel
Morris Griffin walks between cars before a June 7 auto procession departs Leimert Park for downtown Los Angeles as part of a memorial service to honor George Floyd and demand justice for those killed by the hands of the police. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Wayne Nelson has a T-shirt store in Pasadena and has been coming out to the anti-police-violence demonstrations near downtown L.A. selling lots of black T-shirts with white sans serif lettering spelling out political statements relevant to the moment, involving themes related to Black Lives Matter.
He held up masks he just had made, black and printed with white letters: “I can’t breathe.” Other bestsellers are his Nipsey Hussle tees. “There’s a whole lot of ways this system chokes African Americans,” Nelson said, under a hot afternoon sun, referring to his masks. “That’s what this is about, I can’t breathe.”
Jason Estrada and his son Elijah, 6, join protesters at the Compton Peace Ride with the Compton Cowboys, at Compton City Hall on June 7. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
He’s part of a cottage industry of apparel and gear that has accompanied the major street happenings of our era in L.A. The last major outpouring of new momentous tees came with the death of basketball great Kobe Bryant. Nelson said he was there too.
“My talent is buying and selling, I listen to what people want, I go ahead and get it and bring it back to them,” Nelson said. As soon as officials announced the recommendation to wear a mask at all times in public spaces, Nelson said: “I knew what I was selling, wasn’t no doubt in my mind.”
The Black Lives Matter demonstrations have added a new layer of meaning for him, he added, as he welcomed his daughter and niece, who just then arrived to the grassy lawn of Grand Park, west of City Hall, proudly wearing their own Black Lives Matter T-shirts. They were ready to sell.
A culture of giving
A peaceful protest June 1 in Hollywood against police brutality and racial discrimination prompted by the killing of George Floyd. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
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Madison Calderon had gauze, bandages and a box full of 60 peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches she had made herself, all in a wagon she brought down to L.A. City Hall, so she could offer help to the throngs of people out to honor George Floyd however she could.
The 22-year-old from Pasadena wore a face covering as she described her activities last Friday. “I’ve been going to the 99 Cent store and just getting as much as we can, I’ve been getting like six loads a day,” Calderon said. “I’ve given out two Band-Aids, which is nice, I’m glad I haven’t had to use them.”
There has been more mutual aid happening at the George Floyd demonstrations in L.A. than during any of the recent string of popular protest movements that have swept through this city in the last decade — arguably more prevalent than during the antiwar movement, the immigrant-rights marches and the women’s marches, demonstrators said.
Mostly it has been disposable water bottles. They’re piled up on sidewalks in packets of 24, the kind that are cheap and ubiquitous at supermarkets and pharmacy chains, left there by volunteers. Everywhere a marcher turns, there’s someone within reach willing to give them hand sanitizer, a snack, a piece of fruit or a plastic bottle of water.
Snacks and water left for protesters in Hollywood on June 7. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
In Compton, Michelle Merritt, longtime leader of Compton Girl Scout Troop 943, stopped her van amid the march route and began handing out bottles of water from ice chests with help from her daughters. “Because I’m 61, I can’t do a lot of walking,” Merritt said. “But I can pass out water, and that’s what I’m doing.”
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This spirit is most prevalent and concentrated around City Hall, where medic stations have been set up during the big demonstrations in case of any injuries. For Calderon, who attended the Women’s March and said it “wasn’t the same vibe,” these anti-police brutality protests offer a chance for anyone to get involved. Much of the organizing is happening through social media.
“Momma Cat” Daniels puts out snacks as about 70 protesters gather along West Florissant Avenue in Ferguson, Mo., Tuesday night. (Jeff Roberson / Associated Press )
“I want to be out here in the most constructive and positive way. My friends have been posting about resources, and you can put on a Band-Aid, you can cook rice, you can come out and be helpful,” Calderon said. “On top of that, quarantine I feel has made everyone come out, it’s just worse, on worse, on worse, and I hope that makes people want to change it.”


latimes--2020-06-12--Miss the fish? Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach reopens this weekend

Clown fish and sea anemones no longer need be seen only in “ Finding Nemo.
” Visitors can again view the sea creatures in person at Long Beach ’ s Aquarium of the Pacific .
After closing for nearly three months amid the COVID-19 pandemic , the aquarium will reopen to members beginning at 10:45 a.m. Friday and again at 9 a.m. Saturday .
On Sunday , the aquarium will reopen to the public at 9 a.m. , according to its website .
A peaceful trip to the aquarium may be the antithesis of a strenuous workout at the gym @ @ @ @ @ @ @ economy that is reopening Friday — but aquarium officials think it may be just what ’ s needed after the stay-at-home order that ’ s been in place since mid-March .
“ The aquarium is a very tranquil place , and watching the animals in the exhibits can be very relaxing , ” spokeswoman Claire Atkinson said .
“ It ’ s also a place where families come for escape.
” Visits will be by reservation only , and capacity will be limited .
While the aquarium can accommodate between 10,000 and 13,000 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a quarter of that inside each day .
Atkinson said the reservations for Friday were topping out at about 800 to 1,000 .
Beginning next week , regular hours will be 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday through Sunday .
Guests must wear masks , maintain social distance and travel in groups of six or fewer people .
Visitors ’ temperatures will be checked prior to their entrance , and hand sanitizer will be available throughout the aquarium .
To prevent potential spread of the coronavirus , several @ @ @ @ @ @ @ meet-and-greets and behind-the-scenes tours .
In addition , the Northern Pacific touch lab , horseshoe crab touch lab and Shark Lagoon children ’ s play area are all closed , officials said .
Though some fan favorites , including mascot appearances , won ’ t be available , a reimagined coral reef exhibit will debut .
Sea enthusiasts can take a “ virtual dive ” into the Honda Pacific Visions Theater and meet new residents , including a green sea turtle , a red-footed booby and flashlight fish .
“ Flashlight fish have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ full of bioluminescent bacteria , ” said Atkinson , who finds the fish particularly enthralling .
They “ have sort of a flap so they can turn the organ around so it flickers on and off .
”

A seahorse swims in a tank at the Aquarium of the Pacific.
Clown fish and sea anemones no longer need be seen only in “Finding Nemo.” Visitors can again view the sea creatures in person at Long Beach’s Aquarium of the Pacific.
After closing for nearly three months amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the aquarium will reopen to members beginning at 10:45 a.m. Friday and again at 9 a.m. Saturday. On Sunday, the aquarium will reopen to the public at 9 a.m., according to its website.
A peaceful trip to the aquarium may be the antithesis of a strenuous workout at the gym — another sector of the Los Angeles economy that is reopening Friday — but aquarium officials think it may be just what’s needed after the stay-at-home order that’s been in place since mid-March.
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“The aquarium is a very tranquil place, and watching the animals in the exhibits can be very relaxing,” spokeswoman Claire Atkinson said. “It’s also a place where families come for escape.”
Visits will be by reservation only, and capacity will be limited. While the aquarium can accommodate between 10,000 and 13,000 people, it will allow only about a quarter of that inside each day.
Atkinson said the reservations for Friday were topping out at about 800 to 1,000.
Beginning next week, regular hours will be 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday through Sunday.
Guests must wear masks, maintain social distance and travel in groups of six or fewer people. Visitors’ temperatures will be checked prior to their entrance, and hand sanitizer will be available throughout the aquarium.
To prevent potential spread of the coronavirus, several programs are on hiatus, including animal meet-and-greets and behind-the-scenes tours. In addition, the Northern Pacific touch lab, horseshoe crab touch lab and Shark Lagoon children’s play area are all closed, officials said.
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Though some fan favorites, including mascot appearances, won’t be available, a reimagined coral reef exhibit will debut. Sea enthusiasts can take a “virtual dive” into the Honda Pacific Visions Theater and meet new residents, including a green sea turtle, a red-footed booby and flashlight fish.
“Flashlight fish have glowing organs underneath their eyes that are full of bioluminescent bacteria,” said Atkinson, who finds the fish particularly enthralling. They “have sort of a flap so they can turn the organ around so it flickers on and off.”


latimes--2020-06-12--California lawmakers bristle at Newsom's use of executive power during coronavirus crisis

When the California Legislature voted to recess in mid-March during the height of concerns over the spread of the coronavirus , few lawmakers realized they were clearing the way for Gov .
Gavin Newsom to assume unprecedented control of state government .
The Democratic governor has been widely credited for using his executive authority to prevent a massive surge of the virus early in the pandemic .
At the same time , his unilateral decision-making has also fueled bipartisan frustrations in the Legislature , where lawmakers are still struggling to balance the scales of power with Newsom ’ s administration @ @ @ @ @ @ @ our state government collapsed into one-person rule with a governor issuing , at this point , 41 executive orders changing over 200 California laws with a stroke of a pen , ” Assemblyman Kevin Kiley ( R-Rocklin ) said during the Assembly floor session Wednesday .
“ But here ’ s the issue .
We ’ re back now .
We ’ re here .
We ’ re in session .
And yet the governor is still issuing executive orders that usurp our legislative authority.
” On Friday , Kiley and Assemblyman James @ @ @ @ @ @ @ temporary restraining order against Newsom ’ s executive action last week imposing new rules for the November election .
Their lawsuit alleges that Newsom ’ s “ unilateral action ” was unconstitutional .
A Sutter County judge blocked the governor ’ s election guidelines from taking effect until a full court hearing in two weeks .
Tensions between the executive and legislative branches of government are not uncommon .
Former Republican Gov .
Arnold Schwarzenegger was often at odds with the Democratic majority in the Legislature .
Then-Gov .
Jerry Brown made history @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hours after lawmakers approved the spending plan .
But the coronavirus outbreak posed a unique challenge at the state Capitol .
As Sacramento County recommended the cancellation of large gatherings , concerns grew about the virus infecting older and other at-risk lawmakers , staff members and the public .
With no system in place to vote on bills remotely and the possibility of legal challenges to any laws passed that way , the Senate and Assembly voted on March 16 to approve $ 1 billion in emergency funds for Newsom to respond to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Three days later and with lawmakers largely sidelined , the governor issued a sweeping executive order shuttering businesses and directing Californians to stay home .
The legislative break that some initially expected to last a few weeks stretched to May 4 as counties statewide implemented health restrictions .
Lawmakers had little choice but to sit back and watch Newsom roll out one executive order after the next during his near-daily press briefings .
The governor issued more executive orders over three months in response to the pandemic than he signed in all of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lawmakers returned , Newsom signed an executive order to make it easier for essential workers who contract COVID-19 to obtain workers ’ compensation benefits .
Labor unions hailed the decision as a win for workers , while business interests questioned the unilateral decision made without any public hearings and outside of the typical legislative process .
Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins ( D-San Diego ) said she doesn ’ t fault Newsom for stepping up .
“ We can Monday-morning quarterback everything that we think he did right or wrong , but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ apparently , because of the actions he took , ” Atkins said in a meeting Wednesday with The Times ’ Editorial Board .
“ I ’ m not going to pretend what it would be like to be in his shoes to have to deal with so many issues.
” Jesse Melgar , Newsom ’ s press secretary , said the governor has been grateful to work with the Legislature during the crisis and looks forward to a continued partnership .
“ From the onset of this pandemic , our state has moved @ @ @ @ @ @ @ aggressive and urgent actions to help Californians get through these challenging times , ” Melgar said .
“ Because of those efforts and the actions of millions of Californians who followed the Stay at Home order , California bent the curve — giving the state critical weeks to prepare for this new reality.
” Melgar pointed to executive orders on elections and evictions , and new funding for immigrant workers that he said the governor issued in response to requests from legislators .
Though Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon ( D-Lakewood ) has said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ before he publicly announced his executive orders , both he and Atkins said they had separate phone calls with the governor a couple of times each week .
The Legislature also retained its authority to review the governor ’ s emergency expenditures .
In April , lawmakers began to voice concerns publicly over the administration ’ s lack of transparency in deals for personal protective equipment and other emergency purchases .
They also issued a strongly worded letter demanding more public disclosure of such deals to allow them to fulfill their oversight roles @ @ @ @ @ @ @ state provided details of a controversial deal to spend nearly $ 1 billion on masks .
“ If they want to keep asking us for requests for money , they ’ re going to have step up on their transparency , ” said Assemblyman Phil Ting ( D-San Francisco ) , chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee , back in April .
Budget negotiations are also adding to the tensions , as a deadline looms to pass the 2020-21 spending package by Monday .
Newsom ’ s revised budget proposal includes another $ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the pandemic , drawing pushback from lawmakers .
“ They were asking that that dollar amount be appropriated and allow the flexibility and freedom to kind of spend on his own , ” said Sen. Holly Mitchell ( D-Los Angeles ) , who leads the Senate budget committee , during the meeting with The Times ’ Editorial Board .
“ I think it was important for us to remind the administration that the Legislature has a role to play , too , in the decision-making process.
” Prompted by the COVID-19 crisis @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 25 , a constitutional amendment that would allow lawmakers to vote remotely during a state of emergency that prevents them from safely doing so in person at the Capitol .
Both Democrats and Republicans sounded off Wednesday during the floor debate before the vote .
“ Some of us tweeted our anger at the governor and continue to tweet our anger at the governor on a daily basis , ” Assemblyman Marc Berman ( D-Menlo Park ) said .
“ And I think there ’ s unanimous agreement at that frustration .
It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to be the co-equal branch of government that we are.
” Gallagher , one of the GOP lawmakers challenging Newsom ’ s election mandate , urged his colleagues to take back their legislative power .
“ It only matters if this chamber actually steps up and challenges the governor when he takes over our legislative role , ” he said .
“ And he has done that many times during this pandemic .
And we ’ ve done virtually nothing — done a little bit , complained about it.
” Assemblyman Adrin Nazarian @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his leadership in the “ extremely prudent , bold and necessary step ” to issue the nation ’ s first stay-at-home order and said he agreed with several of the governor ’ s decisions .
But as time wore on , he said , Newsom missed an opportunity to receive the Legislature ’ s backing — and shared responsibility for decisions he ultimately made alone .
“ I think we could have been working closer with this administration in trying to address a lot of the areas that he has tried to single-handedly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ interview .
“ I think we would have been able to both help guide and offer support , and be able to then also justify why we ’ re making those decisions in collaboration with the administration .
”

Wearing a face mask reading “California safe,” Assemblyman Kevin Kiley (R-Rocklin) attends an Assembly Transportation Committee hearing May 4. Assembly members returned to the Capitol after a break due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
When the California Legislature voted to recess in mid-March during the height of concerns over the spread of the coronavirus, few lawmakers realized they were clearing the way for Gov. Gavin Newsom to assume unprecedented control of state government.
The Democratic governor has been widely credited for using his executive authority to prevent a massive surge of the virus early in the pandemic. At the same time, his unilateral decision-making has also fueled bipartisan frustrations in the Legislature, where lawmakers are still struggling to balance the scales of power with Newsom’s administration.
“When we were away, our state government collapsed into one-person rule with a governor issuing, at this point, 41 executive orders changing over 200 California laws with a stroke of a pen,” Assemblyman Kevin Kiley (R-Rocklin) said during the Assembly floor session Wednesday. “But here’s the issue. We’re back now. We’re here. We’re in session. And yet the governor is still issuing executive orders that usurp our legislative authority.”
On Friday, Kiley and Assemblyman James Gallagher (R-Yuba City) won a temporary restraining order against Newsom’s executive action last week imposing new rules for the November election. Their lawsuit alleges that Newsom’s “unilateral action” was unconstitutional. A Sutter County judge blocked the governor’s election guidelines from taking effect until a full court hearing in two weeks.
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Tensions between the executive and legislative branches of government are not uncommon. Former Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was often at odds with the Democratic majority in the Legislature. Then-Gov. Jerry Brown made history in 2011 when he vetoed the budget hours after lawmakers approved the spending plan.
But the coronavirus outbreak posed a unique challenge at the state Capitol.
As Sacramento County recommended the cancellation of large gatherings, concerns grew about the virus infecting older and other at-risk lawmakers, staff members and the public. With no system in place to vote on bills remotely and the possibility of legal challenges to any laws passed that way, the Senate and Assembly voted on March 16 to approve $1 billion in emergency funds for Newsom to respond to the health crisis and temporarily adjourned.
Three days later and with lawmakers largely sidelined, the governor issued a sweeping executive order shuttering businesses and directing Californians to stay home.
The legislative break that some initially expected to last a few weeks stretched to May 4 as counties statewide implemented health restrictions. Lawmakers had little choice but to sit back and watch Newsom roll out one executive order after the next during his near-daily press briefings. The governor issued more executive orders over three months in response to the pandemic than he signed in all of 2019.
A couple of days after lawmakers returned, Newsom signed an executive order to make it easier for essential workers who contract COVID-19 to obtain workers’ compensation benefits. Labor unions hailed the decision as a win for workers, while business interests questioned the unilateral decision made without any public hearings and outside of the typical legislative process.
Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) said she doesn’t fault Newsom for stepping up.
“We can Monday-morning quarterback everything that we think he did right or wrong, but California is in the best position, apparently, because of the actions he took,” Atkins said in a meeting Wednesday with The Times’ Editorial Board. “I’m not going to pretend what it would be like to be in his shoes to have to deal with so many issues.”
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Jesse Melgar, Newsom’s press secretary, said the governor has been grateful to work with the Legislature during the crisis and looks forward to a continued partnership.
“From the onset of this pandemic, our state has moved swiftly to protect human life and took aggressive and urgent actions to help Californians get through these challenging times,” Melgar said. “Because of those efforts and the actions of millions of Californians who followed the Stay at Home order, California bent the curve — giving the state critical weeks to prepare for this new reality.”
Melgar pointed to executive orders on elections and evictions, and new funding for immigrant workers that he said the governor issued in response to requests from legislators.
Though Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood) has said Newsom didn’t provide much notice before he publicly announced his executive orders, both he and Atkins said they had separate phone calls with the governor a couple of times each week. The Legislature also retained its authority to review the governor’s emergency expenditures.
In April, lawmakers began to voice concerns publicly over the administration’s lack of transparency in deals for personal protective equipment and other emergency purchases. They also issued a strongly worded letter demanding more public disclosure of such deals to allow them to fulfill their oversight roles. Almost a month later, the state provided details of a controversial deal to spend nearly $1 billion on masks.
“If they want to keep asking us for requests for money, they’re going to have step up on their transparency,” said Assemblyman Phil Ting (D-San Francisco), chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee, back in April.
Budget negotiations are also adding to the tensions, as a deadline looms to pass the 2020-21 spending package by Monday. Newsom’s revised budget proposal includes another $2.9 billion in emergency funds to respond to the pandemic, drawing pushback from lawmakers.
“They were asking that that dollar amount be appropriated and allow the flexibility and freedom to kind of spend on his own,” said Sen. Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles), who leads the Senate budget committee, during the meeting with The Times’ Editorial Board. “I think it was important for us to remind the administration that the Legislature has a role to play, too, in the decision-making process.”
Prompted by the COVID-19 crisis, this week the Assembly approved ACA 25, a constitutional amendment that would allow lawmakers to vote remotely during a state of emergency that prevents them from safely doing so in person at the Capitol. Both Democrats and Republicans sounded off Wednesday during the floor debate before the vote.
“Some of us tweeted our anger at the governor and continue to tweet our anger at the governor on a daily basis,” Assemblyman Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park) said. “And I think there’s unanimous agreement at that frustration. It’s so important that we continue to be the co-equal branch of government that we are.”
Gallagher, one of the GOP lawmakers challenging Newsom’s election mandate, urged his colleagues to take back their legislative power.
“It only matters if this chamber actually steps up and challenges the governor when he takes over our legislative role,” he said. “And he has done that many times during this pandemic. And we’ve done virtually nothing — done a little bit, complained about it.”
Assemblyman Adrin Nazarian (D-Los Angeles) praised Newsom for his leadership in the “extremely prudent, bold and necessary step” to issue the nation’s first stay-at-home order and said he agreed with several of the governor’s decisions. But as time wore on, he said, Newsom missed an opportunity to receive the Legislature’s backing — and shared responsibility for decisions he ultimately made alone.
“I think we could have been working closer with this administration in trying to address a lot of the areas that he has tried to single-handedly address,” Nazarian said in an interview. “I think we would have been able to both help guide and offer support, and be able to then also justify why we’re making those decisions in collaboration with the administration.”
Sacramento Bureau Chief John Myers contributed to this report.


latimes--2020-06-12--London Breed pushes San Francisco reforms: Police no longer will respond to noncriminal calls

San Francisco police officers will be replaced with trained , unarmed professionals to respond to calls for help on noncriminal matters involving mental health , the homeless , school discipline and neighbor disputes , as part of a new wave of police reforms .
That change and others , which will be implemented over the coming months , are part of a plan by Mayor London Breed to try to reduce police confrontations with the community .
Breed unveiled her proposals after weeks of massive protests over the May 25 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis .
“ San @ @ @ @ @ @ @ department , but we know that we still have significant work to do , ” Breed said .
“ We know that a lack of equity in our society overall leads to a lot of the problems that police are being asked to solve.
” The plan is similar to the CAHOOTS program in Eugene , Ore. , where a medic and a mental health crisis manager respond to emergency calls for help with individuals suffering from severe mental illness , addiction and homelessness .
The mobile crisis intervention unit also performs welfare @ @ @ @ @ @ @ suicide intervention and prevention .
Breed announced that she has directed the San Francisco Police Department to establish an “ explicit ” policy to ban the use of military-grade weapons against unarmed civilians .
The department would not be allowed to use chemical weapons , such as tear gas , bayonets or tanks and would have to get rid of such weapons by the end of 2021 .
Starting immediately , the city ’ s Department of Human Resources will audit hiring and promotional exams by the SFPD and San Francisco Sheriff and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ abuse of force , Breed said .
A 2016 report from the city ’ s Budget and Legislative Analyst ’ s Office estimated that the city incurred nearly $ 21 million in 2015 to enforce quality-of-life laws against homeless residents .
Police accounted for more than 90 % of the costs and responded to more than 60,000 incidents from January to November 2015 .
“ For too long , black people have been subjected to violence at the hands of people in power , ” Breed said during a panel Thursday on racial @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the time when we can make sure that these demonstrations that we see are translated into real action.
” San Francisco Police Chief William Scott , who joined Breed on the panel with civil rights activist and television commentator Van Jones and Board of Equalization chairwoman Malia Cohen , endorsed the reforms .
He said the Police Department was also working to change its policy on releasing booking photos .
Scott said a new policy within a couple of weeks would “ reel back ” the release of booking photos , a decision @ @ @ @ @ @ @ how such photos influence biases of officers and the public .
“ The point is rethinking policies and what the things that we are doing add to that association of who is a criminal , who is not , who is dangerous , ” Scott said .
He said the photographs help promote stereotypes .
“ As a black man , I can ’ t tell you how many times I ’ ve walked by a car and heard the door ’ s lock click , ” Scott said .
Jay Cheng , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s Chamber of Commerce , said Friday that small businesses embrace the proposed reforms .
“ From the Chamber ’ s perspective , it is the smart , moral and right move to make , ” Cheng said .
“ The business community has always wanted the SFPD to focus more on serious crime and not be engaged in noncriminal activities.
” He said the SFPD now receives about 40,000 calls a year about homeless people living on the streets .
Social workers familiar with unsheltered residents and people who suffer from brain @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in improving street conditions , he said .
“ It is not great to see people in misery on the streets , ” he added .
“ We want to see real solutions.
” Tyra Fennell , a Black San Francisco resident and founder of a nonprofit arts group for the poor , also praised the reforms .
She said Breed ’ s proposals were “ really leaning into the spirit ” of what the movement to defund police wants .
“ We don ’ t want untrained police officers dealing with the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” she said , adding that Breed will need the support of the community and the activists to carry out her proposals .
Fennell oversaw the lettering of Black Lives Matter on 2 1/2 blocks of city streets in the city ’ s Western Edition .
She lives in the Bayview-Hunters Point district , which she called “ San Francisco ’ s last Black neighborhood.
” The Associated Press contributed to this report .

San Francisco police officers will be replaced with trained, unarmed professionals to respond to calls for help on noncriminal matters involving mental health, the homeless, school discipline and neighbor disputes, as part of a new wave of police reforms.
That change and others, which will be implemented over the coming months, are part of a plan by Mayor London Breed to try to reduce police confrontations with the community. Breed unveiled her proposals after weeks of massive protests over the May 25 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
“San Francisco has made progress reforming our police department, but we know that we still have significant work to do,” Breed said. “We know that a lack of equity in our society overall leads to a lot of the problems that police are being asked to solve.”
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The plan is similar to the CAHOOTS program in Eugene, Ore., where a medic and a mental health crisis manager respond to emergency calls for help with individuals suffering from severe mental illness, addiction and homelessness. The mobile crisis intervention unit also performs welfare checks and works with nonprofits to offer suicide intervention and prevention.
Breed announced that she has directed the San Francisco Police Department to establish an “explicit” policy to ban the use of military-grade weapons against unarmed civilians. The department would not be allowed to use chemical weapons, such as tear gas, bayonets or tanks and would have to get rid of such weapons by the end of 2021.
Starting immediately, the city’s Department of Human Resources will audit hiring and promotional exams by the Police Department and San Francisco Sheriff‘s Department and incorporate testing for bias and potential for abuse of force, Breed said.
A 2016 report from the city’s Budget and Legislative Analyst’s Office estimated that the city incurred nearly $21 million in 2015 to enforce quality-of-life laws against homeless residents. Police accounted for more than 90% of the costs and responded to more than 60,000 incidents from January to November 2015.
“For too long, black people have been subjected to violence at the hands of people in power,” Breed said during a panel Thursday on racial justice broadcast online. “Now is the time when we can make sure that these demonstrations that we see are translated into real action.”
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San Francisco Police Chief William Scott, who joined Breed on the panel with civil rights activist and television commentator Van Jones and Board of Equalization chairwoman Malia Cohen, endorsed the reforms. He said the Police Department was also working to change its policy on releasing booking photos.
Scott said a new policy within a couple of weeks would “reel back” the release of booking photos, a decision he reached after talking to experts about how such photos influence biases of officers and the public.
“The point is rethinking policies and what the things that we are doing add to that association of who is a criminal, who is not, who is dangerous,” Scott said.
He said the photographs help promote stereotypes.
“As a black man, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked by a car and heard the door’s lock click,” Scott said.
Tony Montoya, president of the San Francisco Police Officers Assn., called the mayor’s proposal a “reasonable approach.”
“The San Francisco Police Department has some of the most prescriptive use-of-force policies in the nation that include strong transparency and accountability provisions,” Montoya said. “The SFPOA is always open to engaging in collaborative discussions with the mayor, and other stakeholders, to improve policing in our city.”
Jay Cheng, public policy director for San Francisco’s Chamber of Commerce, said Friday that small businesses embrace the proposed reforms.
“From the Chamber’s perspective, it is the smart, moral and right move to make,” Cheng said. “The business community has always wanted the SFPD to focus more on serious crime and not be engaged in noncriminal activities.”
He said the SFPD now receives about 40,000 calls a year about homeless people living on the streets. Social workers familiar with unsheltered residents and people who suffer from brain disorders will be more effective than police in improving street conditions, he said.
“It is not great to see people in misery on the streets,” he added. “We want to see real solutions.”
Tyra Fennell, a Black San Francisco resident and founder of a nonprofit arts group for the poor, also praised the reforms. She said Breed’s proposals were “really leaning into the spirit” of what the movement to defund police wants.
Defunding, she added, means a reallocation of resources.
× Nationwide, protesters and activists have been calling to “defund the police.” But what does it actually mean? And why are so many people calling for it to happen?
“We don’t want untrained police officers dealing with the mentally ill because they are ill-equipped,” she said, adding that Breed will need the support of the community and the activists to carry out her proposals.
Fennell oversaw the lettering of Black Lives Matter on 2 1/2 blocks of city streets in the city’s Western Edition. She lives in the Bayview-Hunters Point district, which she called “San Francisco’s last Black neighborhood.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.


latimes--2020-06-12--Family questions fatal shooting of Lancaster man by Sheriff's deputy

A man was fatally shot by deputies who arrived at his home in Lancaster early Thursday in response to a report of domestic violence , and his family is questioning whether the killing was justified .
Los Angeles County sheriff ’ s deputies responded to the man ’ s home in the 600 block of West Avenue H12 shortly before 5:30 a.m .
Authorities say the man ’ s fiancee made a call to 911 and later told deputies she was assaulted by the man .
“ During the call to 911 , she never speaks to the operator but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” Deputy James Nagao wrote in a statement .
“ For several minutes , arguing and fighting between the caller and the suspect can be heard in the background.
” Deputies attempted to detain the man , but he refused to comply with their orders and an altercation ensued .
During the scuffle , the man reached down and attempted to grab a deputy ’ s firearm , prompting another deputy to open fire , Nagao said .
The man , who was not identified by authorities , was taken to a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
However , the man ’ s fiancee said her partner never tried to grab one of the deputy ’ s guns .
She told CBS-TV Channel 2 that her fiance , whom she identified as 62-year-old Michael Thomas , told police from the front door that he had a right not to let them in his house and was attempting to turn away from them when he was shot .
“ I heard Michael say , ‘ I have a right to not let you in my house , ’ ” the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shooting comes as protests across the United States continue over police brutality and officers ’ excessive use of force , especially against Black people .
Bradley Gage , an attorney for one of Thomas ’ family members , said he has “ good evidence that the claim that Mr. Thomas was going for a gun is completely false , ” though he declined to elaborate specifically .
“ If he wasn ’ t going for a gun , and the officers are lying about that , why would they be lying ?
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ There ’ s only one logical explanation : They ’ re trying to cover it up.
” Gage said he believes Thomas ’ death “ was preventable ” and alleged it is another example of unwarranted law enforcement violence against a Black man .
“ They broke into a man ’ s home , early morning , without a warrant , without any evidence of any injuries or harm to the fiancée , ” he said .
“ I don ’ t think a white person would ’ ve had their home @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Sheriff ’ s Homicide Bureau will investigate the shooting .

A man was fatally shot by a deputy who arrived at his home in Lancaster early Thursday in response to a report of domestic violence, and his family is questioning whether the killing was justified.
Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies responded to the man’s home in the 600 block of West Avenue H12 shortly before 5:30 a.m. Authorities say the man’s fiancee made a call to 911 and later told deputies she was assaulted by the man.
“During the call to 911, she never speaks to the operator but rather the phone line is left open,” Deputy James Nagao wrote in a statement. “For several minutes, arguing and fighting between the caller and the suspect can be heard in the background.”
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Deputies attempted to detain the man, but he refused to comply with their orders and an altercation ensued. During the scuffle, the man reached down and attempted to grab a deputy’s firearm, prompting another deputy to open fire, Nagao said.
The man, who was not identified by authorities, was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
However, the man’s fiancee said her partner never tried to grab one of the deputy’s guns. She told KCBS-TV Channel 2 that her fiance, whom she identified as 62-year-old Michael Thomas, told police from the front door that he had a right to refuse their entry and was attempting to turn away from them when he was shot.
“I heard Michael say, ‘I have a right to not let you in my house,’ ” the fiancee told the station.
The fatal shooting comes as protests across the United States continue over police brutality and officers’ excessive use of force, especially against Black people.
Bradley Gage, an attorney for one of Thomas’ family members, said he has “good evidence that the claim that Mr. Thomas was going for a gun is completely false,” though he declined to elaborate specifically.
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“If he wasn’t going for a gun, and the officers are lying about that, why would they be lying?” he said in an interview Friday. “There’s only one logical explanation: They’re trying to cover it up.”
Gage said he believes Thomas’ death “was preventable” and alleged it is another example of unwarranted law enforcement violence against a Black man.
“They broke into a man’s home, early morning, without a warrant, without any evidence of any injuries or harm to the fiancee,” he said. “I don’t think a white person would’ve had their home broken into.”
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Homicide Bureau will investigate the shooting.


latimes--2020-06-12--Racism is the reason Black people are disproportionately homeless in L.A., report shows

No one can walk past block after block of tents on skid row , or lift the tarps clinging to Hollywood ’ s freeway offramps , and fail to notice the outsized presence of Black people living on Los Angeles ’ sidewalks and encampments .
But despite official acknowledgments that systemic racism is driving homelessness — and a major study on how to address it — the persistent and staggering over-representation of Black people in L.A. ’ s homeless ranks barely budged this year , according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority ’ s homeless count report released Friday @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 21,509 Black people were without permanent , habitable housing during the count in January — 34 % of Los Angeles ’ homeless population of 64,000 ( Pasadena , Long Beach and Glendale do their own counts , bringing the county homeless total to 66,000 ) .
The Black share of homelessness has hovered for years around that percentage point , in a county where only 8 % of residents are African American .
The draft report on the count found that about 16,000 homeless people were white and 23,000 were Latino .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ four times more likely to be homeless than white people ; retired UCLA law professor Gary Blasi , a homelessness expert , said the likelihood for Black people to become homeless is 10 times greater than for white people .
The numbers released Friday predate the coronavirus crisis , which has unleashed a cataract of unemployment and potential evictions that Blasi said could hurl 36,000 primarily Latino and Black households , including 56,000 children , into homelessness .
The deluge would come when the Judicial Council of California lifts an eviction moratorium imposed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 90 days after the state ’ s COVID-19 state of emergency ends .
Black and Latino families in Los Angeles will be hit hard because even before COVID-19 , many spent much of their incomes on rent , and they are self-employed , rely on informal employment such as street vending or are undocumented and aren ’ t getting unemployment insurance or other aid .
“ If you are Latino you have the highest probability of being unemployed because of this crisis , and Latinos make up half the population in the county @ @ @ @ @ @ @ officer Miguel Santana , who is heading a committee to guide the region out of the pandemic crisis .
Santana has also led the Citizens Oversight Committee , which oversees Proposition HHH homeless housing bond spending .
“ For us , COVID has unmasked the underlying realities that exist within these communities and exposed how significant the disparities are and how our institutions are failing to respond to them , ” Santana said .
“ Homelessness is the most deadly and stark example of institutional failure that exists.
” City Councilman Marqueece Harris-Dawson @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Southwest L.A. , issued a statement that also drew a line between the pandemic and homelessness .
“ The disproportionate impact COVID-19 is having on Black communities has revived much-needed conversations around the cost of racism in this country , ” he said .
“ We desperately need to reinvest our resources into Black communities to prevent the types of disparities we continue to see when it comes to homelessness.
” He called for passage of a resolution declaring racism as a public health crisis in Los Angeles , but also said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ quickly or locally .
We need the federal government to acknowledge and address how slavery and systematic racism contribute to these outcomes.
” In a presentation on the count , Heidi Marston , the homeless authority ’ s executive director , repeatedly said systemic racism is behind the inequities in homelessness .
A 2018 report by a homeless authority-appointed commission on Black people without housing called homelessness “ a byproduct of racism ” and detailed structural barriers in education , criminal justice , housing , employment , healthcare and access to opportunities .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ string of legislation , propositions and educational reforms targeting Black and Latino communities that he backed to help address the imbalance but said the city , and the homeless services system , can ’ t fix the problems on their own .
“ I don ’ t think that we ’ ll see huge percentage changes by asking people at the end of the line to clean up every wrong that ’ s happened along the line , ” Garcetti said .
But Santana and Pete White of the Los Angeles Community Action @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , said government hasn ’ t mustered sufficient urgency and political will to root out homelessness policy failures .
White , a member of the LAHSA commission on Black people and homelessness , said the way authorities prioritize people for homeless housing disadvantages his community .
“ It doesn ’ t check for the fact that African Americans still have problems talking about our mental health issues , ” he said .
The commission found it took longer for Black people to get housing , and less time for them to be evicted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Authorities have never invested to bring the capacity and infrastructure of nonprofit agencies in South Los Angeles to levels seen in Santa Monica and Venice , despite the neighborhood ’ s large Black homeless population , White said .
Those groups don ’ t lack “ the passion for doing everything they can to take care of folks , ” White said .
“ They don ’ t have the infrastructure to do the bureaucratic things asked of them by government sources.
” Earlier this year , local officials launched Project Roomkey to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hotels and motels to shelter them from the pandemic .
The selection process for the rooms appeared to be shorting Black and Latino people , Santana said , so the homeless authority changed its methodology and brought the numbers into alignment with the region ’ s racial makeup , Santana said .
“ But that was done in the interest of the general public , not of people experiencing homelessness , ” he said .
“ At this point there ’ s a big failure on the part not just of LAHSA , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s a failure of political leadership to activate things .
“ We are duty bound to move now , not to try to study it some more , not to figure out the best way forward , but to make some definitive steps in fulfilling the goals we have , ” White said .

A protester hands Isaac D., who is homeless, a bottle of water in the 2nd Street tunnel on June 4 in downtown Los Angeles.
No one can walk past block after block of tents on skid row, or lift the tarps clinging to Hollywood’s freeway offramps, and fail to notice the outsized presence of Black people living on Los Angeles’ sidewalks and encampments.
But despite official acknowledgments that systemic racism is driving homelessness — and a major study on how to address it — the persistent and staggering over-representation of Black people in L.A.’s homeless ranks barely budged this year, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority’s homeless count report released Friday.
According to a draft report, 21,509 Black people were without permanent, habitable housing during the count in January — 34% of Los Angeles’ homeless population of 64,000 (Pasadena, Long Beach and Glendale do their own counts, bringing the county homeless total to 66,000).
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The Black share of homelessness has hovered for years around that percentage point, in a county where only 8% of residents are African American.
The draft report on the count found that about 16,000 homeless people were white and 23,000 were Latino. The homeless authority says that Black people are four times more likely to be homeless than white people; retired UCLA law professor Gary Blasi, a homelessness expert, said the likelihood for Black people to become homeless is 10 times greater than for white people.
The numbers released Friday predate the coronavirus crisis, which has unleashed a cataract of unemployment and potential evictions that Blasi said could hurl 36,000 primarily Latino and Black households, including 56,000 children, into homelessness.
The deluge would come when the Judicial Council of California lifts an eviction moratorium imposed April 6 and scheduled to last until 90 days after the state’s COVID-19 state of emergency ends. Black and Latino families in Los Angeles will be hit hard because even before COVID-19, many spent much of their incomes on rent, and they are self-employed, rely on informal employment such as street vending or are undocumented and aren’t getting unemployment insurance or other aid.
California Locked out of L.A.’s white neighborhoods, they built a black suburb. Now they’re homeless Los Angeles is starting to address the forces behind the racial disparity in the city’s homeless population. It would be hard to find a purer example than an encampment of black people who live under a freeway in Pacoima.
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“If you are Latino you have the highest probability of being unemployed because of this crisis, and Latinos make up half the population in the county,“ said former L.A. city administrative officer Miguel Santana, who is heading a committee to guide the region out of the pandemic crisis. Santana has also led the Citizens Oversight Committee, which oversees Proposition HHH homeless housing bond spending.
“For us, COVID has unmasked the underlying realities that exist within these communities and exposed how significant the disparities are and how our institutions are failing to respond to them,” Santana said. “Homelessness is the most deadly and stark example of institutional failure that exists.”
City Councilman Marqueece Harris-Dawson, whose district includes historically Black neighborhoods in Southwest L.A., issued a statement that also drew a line between the pandemic and homelessness.
“The disproportionate impact COVID-19 is having on Black communities has revived much-needed conversations around the cost of racism in this country,” he said. “We desperately need to reinvest our resources into Black communities to prevent the types of disparities we continue to see when it comes to homelessness.”
He called for passage of a resolution declaring racism as a public health crisis in Los Angeles, but also said the problem “cannot be solved quickly or locally. We need the federal government to acknowledge and address how slavery and systematic racism contribute to these outcomes.”
In a presentation on the count, Heidi Marston, the homeless authority’s executive director, repeatedly said systemic racism is behind the inequities in homelessness. A 2018 report by a homeless authority-appointed commission on Black people without housing called homelessness “a byproduct of racism” and detailed structural barriers in education, criminal justice, housing, employment, healthcare and access to opportunities.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti cited a string of legislation, propositions and educational reforms targeting Black and Latino communities that he backed to help address the imbalance but said the city, and the homeless services system, can’t fix the problems on their own.
“I don’t think that we’ll see huge percentage changes by asking people at the end of the line to clean up every wrong that’s happened along the line,” Garcetti said.
But Santana and Pete White of the Los Angeles Community Action Network, a skid row anti-poverty group, said government hasn’t mustered sufficient urgency and political will to root out homelessness policy failures.
White, a member of the LAHSA commission on Black people and homelessness, said the way authorities prioritize people for homeless housing disadvantages his community. “It doesn’t check for the fact that African Americans still have problems talking about our mental health issues,” he said.
The commission found it took longer for Black people to get housing, and less time for them to be evicted for breaking rules, White said. Authorities have never invested to bring the capacity and infrastructure of nonprofit agencies in South Los Angeles to levels seen in Santa Monica and Venice, despite the neighborhood’s large Black homeless population, White said.
Those groups don’t lack “the passion for doing everything they can to take care of folks,” White said. “They don’t have the infrastructure to do the bureaucratic things asked of them by government sources.”
Earlier this year, local officials launched Project Roomkey to place thousands of homeless people in L.A. hotels and motels to shelter them from the pandemic.
The selection process for the rooms appeared to be shorting Black and Latino people, Santana said, so the homeless authority changed its methodology and brought the numbers into alignment with the region’s racial makeup, Santana said.
“But that was done in the interest of the general public, not of people experiencing homelessness,” he said.
“At this point there’s a big failure on the part not just of LAHSA,” White said. “It’s a failure of political leadership to activate things.
“We are duty bound to move now, not to try to study it some more, not to figure out the best way forward, but to make some definitive steps in fulfilling the goals we have,” White said.


latimes--2020-06-12--Community college presidents aim to address 'tremendous racial inequities' on campuses

The presidents of 60 California community colleges have formed an alliance that aims to combat racism and educational inequities on campuses where the majority are students of color .
The move follows mass protests triggered by the death of , which have prompted calls for institutions around the country to take a hard look at issues of racism and racial inequity within their own walls .
The newly formed California Community College Equity Leadership Alliance will work with the USC Race and Equity Center to train college representatives on topics like hiring and retaining faculty of color , fostering inclusive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The members will also have access to online tools like case studies and readings on racial equity and will participate in campus surveys to assess how students , faculty and staff feel about their campus climate when it comes to issues of inclusion and diversity .
Shaun R. Harper , executive director of the USC Race and Equity Center , said students and faculty of color have been pushing community colleges to commit to specific steps to address persistent inequities on campus .
Those calls grew more urgent as protests swept the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ inequities on the California community college campuses , ” Harper said .
“ You have a mostly white faculty teaching a mostly Latino , Black , Asian and Pacific Islander population .
Therefore the curriculum tends to not be reflective of those students ’ cultural histories and identities and interests.
” The schools , like other institutions of higher education , also often have a stratified workforce , he said .
“ Most Black and Latino employees work in food service , grounds keeping , or low-paid secretarial roles , ” Harper said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ student at one of these community colleges and the only Black employees you really see are custodial workers or food service workers , it conveys to you quite powerfully how Black people are positioned at the institution.
” The schools will pay $ 25,000 per year to participate in the alliance , Harper said .
Francisco Rodriguez , chancellor of the Los Angeles Community College District , which is part of the alliance , said that in recent days he ’ s heard very personal and often painful stories from students and faculty @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their lives , including on campus .
Students and staff have pushed for a more inclusive curriculum as well as stronger efforts to diversify hiring .
About 85 % of the student body at LACCD is made up of people of color , while only about 40-45 % of faculty are , Rodriguez said .
“ We ’ ve made good progress in the last couple years , ” he said .
But , “ we ’ ve not made enough progress.
” Now there ’ s an urgency for institutions around the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ We need to do more than reflect , ” he said .
“ We need to act and finally once and for all root out racism and racist policies and practices in higher education and I ’ m committed to do that at LACCD .
”

The presidents of 60 California community colleges have formed an alliance that aims to combat racism and educational inequities on campuses where the majority are students of color.
The move follows mass protests triggered by the death of George Floyd , which have prompted calls for institutions around the country to take a hard look at issues of racism and racial inequity within their own walls.
The newly formed California Community College Equity Leadership Alliance will work with the USC Race and Equity Center to train college representatives on topics like hiring and retaining faculty of color, fostering inclusive classrooms and integrating race across the curriculum. The members will also have access to online tools like case studies and readings on racial equity and will participate in campus surveys to assess how students, faculty and staff feel about their campus climate when it comes to issues of inclusion and diversity.
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Shaun R. Harper, executive director of the USC Race and Equity Center, said students and faculty of color have been pushing community colleges to commit to specific steps to address persistent inequities on campus. Those calls grew more urgent as protests swept the country.
“There are tremendous racial inequities on the California community college campuses,” Harper said. “You have a mostly white faculty teaching a mostly Latino, Black, Asian and Pacific Islander population. Therefore the curriculum tends to not be reflective of those students’ cultural histories and identities and interests.”
The schools, like other institutions of higher education, also often have a stratified workforce, he said.
“Most Black and Latino employees work in food service, grounds keeping, or low-paid secretarial roles,” Harper said. “If you are a Black student at one of these community colleges and the only Black employees you really see are custodial workers or food service workers, it conveys to you quite powerfully how Black people are positioned at the institution.”
The schools will pay $25,000 per year to participate in the alliance, Harper said.
Francisco Rodriguez, chancellor of the Los Angeles Community College District, which is part of the alliance, said that in recent days he’s heard very personal and often painful stories from students and faculty about the impact of racial inequity on their lives, including on campus. Students and staff have pushed for a more inclusive curriculum as well as stronger efforts to diversify hiring.
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About 85% of the student body at LACCD is made up of people of color, while only about 40-45% of faculty are, Rodriguez said.
“We’ve made good progress in the last couple years,” he said. But, “we’ve not made enough progress.”
Now there’s an urgency for institutions around the country to respond, he said.
“We need to do more than reflect,” he said. “We need to act and finally once and for all root out racism and racist policies and practices in higher education and I’m committed to do that at LACCD.”