Women and men at the #ArewaMeToo rally in Kano State, Nigeria. Credit: Abubakar Shehu at African Arguments

WASHINGTON, DC – “It is only by being “too much” that new cracks in the wall of patriarchal dictatorships can emerge.”

These words from award-winning blogger and Pan-African feminist activist, Rosebell Kagumire in her essay entitled “African Young Women Resisting Beyond Borders” underscores young African women’s utilization of the Internet to bring attention to sexual violence, police brutality, and gender disparities. A recent chain of events emphasizing resistance on a global stage, has opened the doors for the composition to make its way to the forefront of conversations again.

At the Tokyo Olympics, United States gymnast, Simone Biles, sent shockwaves throughout the world when she withdrew from the team competition and later individual events, to focus on her mental health. Citing the necessity of having her body and mind in sync, the now seven-time Olympic medalist chose not to follow the status quo of “pushing through.” Instead, she used her platform to emphasize the power of using one’s voice and actions to draw attention to unrealistic expectations, supremacy structures, and the muting of victims.

Kagumire does the same by highlighting the various ways these women have developed a collective voice to demand an end to experienced injustices. Her essay begins with an explanation regarding last year’s Twitter uproar after dozens of Ugandan women disclosed they’re victims of sexual assault and harassment. Referencing movements that have pushed for accountability and consequences, Kagumire referred to the viral revealing as “Uganda’s own #MeToo movement.”

“These young women were building on the bravery of women who had earlier told their stories despite the public wrath they faced.”

Noting mounting displeasure, Kagumire explains how the “patriarchal power” structure uses its authority to silence women. Standing in the gap for those afraid to speak publicly, Sheena Bageine, a social media activist, anonymously posted their stories online. Subsequently, her arrest triggered a new Twitter hashtag.

“Young Ugandan women responded, from lawyers to mental health specialists to social media warriors, and the #FreeSheena hashtag trended. Within a few hours, she had become a liability for compromised police who released her on bail. Sheena’s case is still ongoing. But the actions of her peers and the solidarity she evoked shows how agile young women’s mobilization in the digital age is, despite the entrenched hegemonies that still prevail in daily life.”

Kagumire contends in her essay that despite the resistance, “millions of young women across the African continent have found a common voice for community building, organizing, and mobilization, taking advantage of the steady increase of Internet penetration and the proliferation of cheaper smartphones.”

To support this fact, she references a 2019 Afrobarometer report stating, “women who regularly use the Internet has more than doubled over the past five years in 34 African countries.” The percentage increased from 11 to 26. Despite the rise, women are still less likely to own a mobile phone, computer, or phone with Internet capabilities, access the Internet regularly, or receive their news from an online source.

Although accessibility is limited, women like Biles continue to seize opportunities to underline injustices as they arise. Later, in her writing, Kagumire steers the conversation back to the use of hashtags to create awareness around long perceived “women’s issues.”

The #SudanWomenProtest, which began in 2019, targeted the leadership of Omar al Bashir (former Sudan head of state). Thousands of women united in rejecting policies that gave credence to sexist and discriminatory laws. The revolt was a shock to many despite the years of resistance from Sudanese women. Social media provided them with a platform to spread their message abroad, resulting in an overthrow of the Bashir regime.

In areas where online access remains limited, “young feminist movements and collectives remain marginalized even in young people’s movements pushing for political changes.” Kagumire stated. “Young people in Africa are increasingly organizing in search of radical change in the way African nations are governed, to deliver dignity and respect for citizens’ voices. Without the equal participation and leadership of young feminists, however, such a social transformation will remain elusive.”

Absolutes such as these are the reasons it’s imperative for women to gather to strategize and implement plans of action. While the organization of like-minded individuals in many African countries is becoming more of a focus in mainstream media, the years of work is evident.

In 2006, women from various African countries met to establish the African Feminist Forum. According to charter documents, “the space was crafted as an autonomous space in which African feminists from all walks of life at different levels of engagement within the feminist movement such as mobilizing at local levels for women’s empowerment to academia, could reflect on a collective basis and chart ways to strengthen and grow the feminist movement on the continent.”

As many of the movements have hinged upon grassroots efforts, Kagumire points out the necessity of women in parliament positions to generate lasting change. To create a power shift, women must continue to demand that their humanity be recognized even if it’s deemed as “asking for too much.”

About Rosebell Kagumire:

Rosebell Kagumire is also a writer and communications strategist. She is the current curator and editor of AfricanFeminism.com. Kagumire is the co-editor of ‘The Role of Patriarchy in the Roll-back of Democracy, focusing on East Africa and the Horn of Africa (available for free download).

By Phylicia Porter, Candidate for Baltimore’s City Council in the 10^th District

Public safety comes first, especially for our children and seniors. But beyond stopping the violence, reducing harm to victims, and ending cycles of criminalization, safer neighborhoods require us to think holistically about factors outside of the traditional public safety sphere. These include factors related to people, like education or economic opportunity, but also environmental factors as well, like lead paint exposure. Phylicia Porter is building healthy communities by applying her public health lens to create safe neighborhoods for every Baltimorean.

• Rebuilding trust in policing and increasing the effectiveness of the Baltimore Police Department
  • Increasing the number of patrol officers walking the neighborhood and engaging the community. Phylicia will advocate for the Baltimore Police Department to meet local hiring targets and reform operations so that officers spend a greater percentage of their time on proactive policing (i.e., being present in neighborhoods and engaging the community, as opposed to simply responding to calls and reacting to things that have already happened.)
  • Monthly COP walks. Phylicia Porter knows that true public safety comes from community partnerships. She is committed to holding monthly community-on-patrol (COP) walks to highlight key hot spots for neighborhood-assigned police officers to patrol.
  • Supporting Baltimore Police Department’s full compliance with the Department of Justice Consent Decree. Phylicia Porter will work with BPD, the Consent Decree Monitor, and communities in the 10th District, to ensure that the Consent Decree is implemented on schedule and in an effective manner. This includes ensuring appropriate enforcement action is taken when officers break the law.
  • End the use of gag orders.
• Funding and implementing programs that reduce violence and increase harm reduction an
  • Funding violence prevention programs like Safe Streets and Roca. Phylicia Porter will advocate for increased funding to expand programs like Safe Streets and Roca that address violence by intervening before it starts. Phylicia will foster community partnerships to ensure these programs are working as effectively as possible.
  • Expanding the response to the opioid crisis and trying new strategies like safe injection sites. Many years into the onset of the opioid crisis, communities in the 10th District like Morrell Park, Brooklyn, and Curtis Bay, are still waiting for a proportionate response to this public health crisis. Baltimore City now has the highest opioid fatality rate of any City in the U.S. Phylicia Porter will work with Maryland’s Inter-Agency Heroin and Opioid Coordinating Council, the Maryland General Assembly, the Baltimore City Health Department, and community based organizations to expand funding and develop new, innovative approaches like safe injection sites, which have been proven to improve treatment utilization and reduce overdoses and deaths.
• Addressing environmental factors and other public health issues that directly relate to public safety.
  • Addressing Baltimore’s lead paint crisis by identifying, documenting, and remediating problem properties. Lead paint remediation remains a huge challenge in Baltimore. Currently neither the City or the State perform adequate oversight of landlords owning lead paint properties. A 2015 audit confirmed that the state agency responsible for Maryland’s lead program is rarely checking properties, and if a property is checked, it is usually done after a child is found to be poisoned by lead. Phylicia Porter will work with the Maryland Department of Environment, Baltimore Housing, community partners and activists to ensure that homes are being registered, checked, and remediated.
  • Reducing vacant housing, blight, and remediating substandard housing. Public health issues related to housing don’t stop with lead. Poor housing conditions throughout our communities affect our health and public safety. Vacant and blighted housing is an issue in communities across the 10th District. In places like Cherry Hill, public housing units need investment to fix poor conditions including indoor air quality issues that cause asthma. Phylicia Porter will work with the state partners, Baltimore Housing, and community leaders to remediate vacant and blighted housing and ensure that we invest in public housing units and do not displace or reduce our public housing stock.
  • Providing safe routes to school for our children. When our communities are hurting, our children unfortunately hurt the most. The walk or public transit ride to school exposes too many children to violence. Research shows that this affects absenteeism and school performance. Additionally, if care isn’t taken to calm traffic on children’s routes to school, they are at risk for injury or even death from traffic crashes. Phylicia Porter will work with city and state agencies, non-profits, and the community, to ensure that children are able to get to and from school safely.
  • Ensuring we have clean air and lower asthma rates. In addition to indoor air quality issues, we need to ensure that we address the sources of pollution that contribute to Baltimore City’s high rates of childhood and adult asthma.

By Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., President and CEO, National Newspaper Publishers Association

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought issues of healthcare equity to the forefront of discussions of racial justice. Even when controlling for factors like age and income, communities of color have been much more severely impacted that white Americans.

A recent report by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that “older Black, Hispanic, and American Indian/Alaska Native adults were nearly twice as likely to die of COVID-19 as older White adults,” and “cases among Black and Hispanic Medicare beneficiaries were 1.6 times higher than the rate observed among White beneficiaries.”

Access to healthcare and health insurance is a vital issue for African Americans. And it’s important to be on the lookout for healthcare companies that make big promises but fail to deliver.

In this context, let’s take a look at Oscar Health, an insurance company that tries to appeal to consumers by positioning itself as a tech company. But its track record is questionable at best.

The company has been investigated and fined by the NY State Department of Financial Services. During its expansion in New York, Oscar cut the number of doctors in its network by more than half.

The company also has connections to former Trump Administration officials. It was founded by Jared Kushner’s brother Josh, and its parent company, Thrive Capital, was partly owned by Kushner until he took a job at the White House. And the company is run by serial Wall Street investors who seem primarily interested in flipping companies for a profit.

Even more concerning, Oscar has been expanding into the Medicare Advantage program, where they can leverage taxpayer money to provide health coverage to our seniors. That means one of our most vulnerable communities could be opting into a company that has questions hanging over it.

African Americans clearly need better health insurance. But we can’t get lured in by companies that are more interested in taking money than providing real healthcare benefits.

So, before you make a decision about health insurance, please get more than one opinion or option.  There are healthcare insurance companies that are considerably more equitable and beneficial. Healthcare for all is both a fundamental civil and human right.

Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. is President and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) and Executive Producer and Host of The Chavis Chronicles (TCC) broadcast weekly on PBS TV stations throughout the United States. 

By Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., President and CEO, National Newspaper Publishers Association

The COVID-19 pandemic across America and throughout the world is still a serious danger to public health for all communities, but especially for African American and other people of color communities. African Americans are still disproportionately negatively impacted by this deadly virus.

This is why more COVID-19 testing for Black America is so important in 2021: African Americans comprise 13% of the U.S. population, but more than half of all COVID-19 cases, and nearly 60% of all COVID-related deaths in the U.S., were in cities with large Black populations. Now that federal-government approved vaccines are available, it does not mean that COVID-19 testing is no longer needed.

The National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) is very concerned about the current state of health disparities and inequities that are realities for the majority of African Americans. Facts, data, and truth about the pandemic are vital to our future.

According to a recent study by the Pew Research Center, a majority of Black Americans (61%) now say they plan to get a COVID-19 vaccine (or that they’ve already received one), compared to only 42% in November, 2020. As trust increases, we need to also increase access to COVID-19 vaccinations and testing in our communities to create better health outcomes.

The Black Press and the Black Church are two fundamental trusted institutions in our communities. We are pleased to learn about a new emerging partnership with Black church leaders which is creating greater access to much-needed COVID-19 testing in our communities. A partnership between Quest Diagnostics, Choose Healthy Life and the United Way of New York City is bringing COVID-19 testing and education to Black communities in cities across the U.S., and they are working with trusted voices in Black churches to increase participation.

The pandemic has also made it even clearer that Black Americans need access to additional resources to take control of their health. In Chicago for example, Black residents make up 30% of the population but account for 70% of COVID-related deaths, and the majority of Black COVID-19 patients who have died in Chicago also had underlying health conditions, like respiratory problems, hypertension, high blood pressure, and diabetes.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, heart disease is the leading cause of death for Black Americans, and Black people experience risk factors that contribute to heart disease like high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol more often and earlier in life compared to White people. Thus, overall healthcare testing is needed throughout Black America.

Getting tested for important health issues – and understanding the results – empowers people to make informed and sometimes critical healthcare decisions. In fact, 70% of medical decisions are based on results from diagnostic tests. Because there aren’t always obvious symptoms of a health issue, testing is one of the most effective ways to identify health concerns that may need to be addressed.

Quest Diagnostics is committed to creating partnerships with others to increase access in Black and other underserved communities. It’s time for the entire healthcare system to step up with similar commitments – with access to treatment and preventative care – to help Black communities move past this pandemic on an even ground with White America. Access, testing, and equity are keys to achieving and maintaining good health for all.

Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr is President and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), and Executive Producer and host of The Chavis Chronicles (TCC) on PBS TV stations weekly across the United States.

By John Thomas III, Editor, The Christian Recorder

The commemoration of Good Friday is a solemn and holy event for Christians. We cannot get to the resurrection of Jesus Christ without traversing through the crucifixion, death, and burial of God’s only begotten son. One of the dividing lines among Christian traditions is the context of Jesus’s Passion and death. When we separate Jesus from His worldly environment and circumstances—being persecuted as a Jewish teacher by a foreign empire and betrayed by compatriots who were threatened by His message and witness—we lose sight that Jesus, both fully God and man, was gruesomely murdered.

This year’s Good Friday is especially poignant for African Americans it comes in the middle of the trial of Derek Chauvin for the gruesome murder of George Floyd. The 9 minutes and 29 seconds that turned the collective stomach of the world have been seared into our shared consciousness and the legacy of this watershed moment is still playing out. In the same way that we cannot allow our faith to be sanitized, we cannot allow the death of Mr. Floyd to be stripped of the circumstances of institutional racism, poverty, and White Supremacy that led to his brutal death at the hands of one who was charged to serve and protect. It is customary on Good Friday to commemorate the seven last words/sayings of Jesus Christ in solemn worship. In that spirit today, I encourage us to reflect upon the seven last words of George Floyd based upon the police bodycam transcript.

1) Mama, mama, mama!

“When George Floyd called for his mother, he was calling for all of us,” said a friend of mine who is the mother of a young Black son. When Jesus was dying on the cross, He looked to His mother, Mary commending her to John’s care. We can only imagine how Mary felt to see the life slowly leaving her son’s body. In his last moments, Mr. Floyd cried out for the woman who brought him into this world as he realized he was being ripped out of it.

2) Please, man.

When Jesus was on the cross, He appealed to His tormentors to quench His thirst. Mr. Floyd appealed to the humanity of his tormentor to save his life. He was already on the ground and restrained. He was not a threat. This plea echoes the signs of the 1960s strikes when working-class Black people asserted their dignity by simply saying, “I am a Man!” It also echoes the appeal of Sojourner Truth for persons to see and value her humanity by saying, “Ain’t I a Woman?” In the eyes of his murderer, however, Mr. Floyd was not a citizen—much less, a human being.

3) You’re going to kill me, man!

Mr. Floyd told his murderer that he was dying and pleaded with him to stop. As the trial goes on, we are hearing the damning testimony of persons who all say they know they witnessed a murder. An assassination perpetrated by White Supremacy at the hands of the police. How many times have we heard deadly force being justified because of a perceived threat or a need to stand one’s ground?

4) I can’t believe this.

Mr. Floyd’s disbelief that a transaction with an alleged counterfeit bill could cost him his life at the hands of someone who he had worked with. The shock from emergency personnel who clearly saw the signs of distress yet were not allowed to render assistance. The horror of rookie police officers out on their training patrol witnessing a superior crushing the life out of a restrained suspect. We all cannot believe the cruel brutality of White Supremacy—yet it plays before our collective eyes daily with its deadly consequences.

5) Tell my kids, I love them.

Mr. Floyd had a life before he became a martyr, a slogan, and a t-shirt image. He was a friend, a son, and a father. Behind every victim of racism is collateral damage—grieving children, a heartbroken community, the lost potential of what could and should have been. Even though his death has become a symbol of the cost of institutional racism for Black people, Mr. Floyd was a real man with real people who mourn him and were robbed of his presence in their lives.

6) I’m dead.

Between 1920 and 1938, the New York branch of the NAACP hung a flag outside of its office emblazoned with the words, “Another man was lynched today.” In 2015, the flag was revived and updated to say, “Another man was lynched by police today.” Jesus’s death was a public lynching complete with a gambling show. The world has borne witness to Mr. Floyd’s lynching—many anguished, others cheering, and some nonchalant—in the same way that the spectators watched Jesus hang His head on Golgotha as the sun set.

7) I can’t breathe!

The most well-known phrase that embodies how White Supremacy has strangled the life out of Black people globally through the trans-Atlantic slave trade (Maafa), colonialism, apartheid, segregation, and a litany of other terms associated with White Supremacy and anti-Blackness. It was first seared into our memories when we watched Eric Garner have the life choked out of him. On May 25, 2020, over 600 years of global anti-Blackness were distilled into a single moment when a white cop literally ripped the spirit out of a Black man. We remember that Jesus committed His spirit to God as his lungs collapsed from the crucifixion.

Breonna Taylor, Atatiana Jefferson, Tamir Rice, Freddy Gray, Philando Castille, Bothan Jean Janisha Fonville, Mr. George Perry Floyd, Jr., and Jesus.

Today as we commemorate one who paid the ultimate price for our eternal salvation, we must also remember those who daily pay the price of the legacy of the brutal and inveterate violence of White Supremacy. Our prayer to make it “on Earth as it is in Heaven” is only as good as the witness and daily steps we take to make sure that Jesus, George Floyd, and so many others have not died in vain. Amen.

By U.S. Congressman James E. Clyburn (D-SC-6)

It has been a little more than a year since COVID-19 was officially discovered within the boundaries of the United States. It has been devastating to communities of color.

The statistics are sobering. Blacks represent only 13-percent of the U.S. population, but account for nearly 24-percent of age-adjusted COVID-19 deaths. In January, nine percent of Black workers or 1.8 million people in our communities were unemployed. One in five Black households are struggling with food insufficiency, and more than a third of Black renters are behind on their rent payments.

President Joe Biden has responded to this world-wide pandemic with The American Rescue Plan (ARP) which he signed into law last month, just 51 days after he took office. The ARP will help change the course of the pandemic and deliver immediate relief for hard-hit communities of color. This transformative law invests in a national vaccination program and the safe reopening of schools. It distributes $360 billion in emergency funding for state and local governments to keep front line public workers on the job and help maintain essential services. These targeted investments will directly benefit your communities and help them return safely to normal.

The ARP also provides direct benefits for you and your family. It delivers immediate relief to families by devoting $1 trillion towards economic recovery for working families including direct relief payments, extension of unemployment insurance benefits, increasing child and earned income tax credits, and increasing SNAP benefits.

Many of you may have already received the $1,400 direct payment per eligible member of your household. Because of misinformation that is being shared via social media, I want to clarify that this is the second of two payments. The first $600 payments per eligible person were distributed in December and January. These two direct payments deliver on the $2,000 per person in pandemic relief that Democrats campaigned on last November.

The American Rescue Plan also addresses inequities in access to pandemic resources by making significant investments into small, Black businesses by providing $50 billion for new and existing small business relief programs. This legislation bolsters the Paycheck Protection Program with an additional $7.25 billion in funding to support small businesses and non-profits that were previously excluded.

It allocates $15 billion in flexible grants to help the smallest; most severely impacted businesses persevere through the pandemic. It deploys community navigators to increase awareness of and participation in COVID-19 relief programs for small business owners who currently lack access, especially underserved entrepreneurs without banking relationships, lawyers, accountants, and consultants. And, it provides $28 billion for a new grant program to revitalize hard-hit small restaurants and other food and drinking establishments.

The American Rescue Plan is the first piece of legislation passed by the 117^th Congress and signed by President Biden to rescue our economy and repair some of our faults that are being exasperated by COVID-19. On March 30^th President Biden rolled out his American Jobs Plan. That plan proposes to: Fix highways, rebuild bridges, upgrade ports, airports and transit systems; deliver clean drinking water, a renewed electric grid, and high-speed broadband to all Americans; build, preserve, and retrofit more than two million homes and commercial buildings, modernize our nation’s schools and child care facilities, and upgrade veterans’ hospitals and federal buildings.

These actions demonstrate President Biden’s and Congressional Democrats’ commitment to building America back better than it was before the virus visited. This is not the end of his build back better plan. There is a third iteration on the way.

During his victory speech last November, President Biden pledged to always have the backs of the African American community. We will continue fighting to ensure that, in the short term, Black communities have access to all the tools necessary to recover from the economic and personal devastation wrought by this pandemic; and in the long term, address the impacts of historic disparate treatment against communities of color.