When I play poker and go all-in, I may be holding pocket aces. Other times, I’m bluffing. Either way, all of my chips go into the pot. In poker, going all-in doesn’t require certainty. It requires commitment. And the same is true when it comes to artificial intelligence.

For Black Americans, this particular bet is crucial. We have too few voices in the rooms where AI is being shaped and too much at stake in what happens next. Black workers, students and entrepreneurs are already being affected by AI. So this isn’t just somebody else’s technology debate. It’s ours, too.

AI could cure cancer. AI could kill us. That is the extraordinary range of possibilities now being debated by some of the very people building the technology.

And some of the risks are becoming less theoretical. OpenAI recently disclosed six instances of unexpected or concerning model behavior during training or evaluation, including models taking unauthorized actions, concealing information and finding ways around constraints. A recent brief from the U.N.’s Independent International Scientific Panel on AI described a separate OpenAI-Hugging Face incident as one of the clearest real-world warnings yet of a possible path toward losing human control over advanced AI agents.

But development is hardly slowing down. In fact, it’s clearly going all-in.

President Donald Trump has framed AI largely as a competition America cannot afford to lose, saying, “Whoever wins AI wins.” He recently announced plans to create an “AI Force” and appoint an AI “czar,” while promising not to “hinder or stifle” the growth of the AI industry. And Anthropic reports that Claude now leads 26% of the company’s AI research and development work and collaborates on more than 90% of it.

Vast sums of money, extraordinary computing power and some of the smartest people on the planet are being committed to making these systems more powerful.

If that is the bet we are making, then responsibility deserves the same commitment.

There are signs that at least some in the industry recognize that. Anthropic recently announced a partnership with Accenture to embed independent evaluators inside its frontier AI development process, with each company expecting to invest at least $1 billion over five years.

That is closer to the balance we need. Development does not necessarily have to stop for responsibility to accelerate.

Responsibility starts with safety: keeping increasingly powerful systems under human control, protecting privacy and cybersecurity, and guarding against misuse.

But responsible AI has to mean more than preventing some future catastrophe.

It means preparing workers whose jobs may change or disappear. It means making sure algorithms don’t reproduce discrimination in hiring, lending, health care and education. It means helping schools decide when students should learn without AI, about AI and with AI.

And it means making sure people who will live with the consequences have a meaningful role in shaping them.

That includes Black folks.

I’m not an AI expert, a tech billionaire or a politician. I’m a Chicago educator who has spent most of my adult life preparing students, almost all of them Black and from low-income communities, for an unpredictable future. That makes this debate especially urgent to me.

And our young people aren’t waiting for adults to figure it out. About six in 10 Black teenagers are already using AI chatbots for schoolwork. Yet federal data show that about 60% of schools serving mostly students of color provide AI training to at least some teachers, compared with 75% of predominantly white schools.

The economic stakes are significant, too. McKinsey estimates that 24% of Black workers are in occupations with greater than 75% automation potential, compared with 20% of White workers. Black people make up about 12% of the U.S. workforce but only 8% of workers in tech jobs and just 3% of technology executives in the C-suite.

So Black people are not watching this transformation from the sidelines. We are using the technology, our children are learning with it, and we are working in occupations that could be significantly changed by it. What we don’t have are nearly enough seats at the tables where the biggest decisions are being made.

That lack of representation was visible recently. At a major Washington gathering calling for action on AI safety, almost none of the people onstage were Black.

Black voices aren’t absent, however. Sen. Cory Booker called for a special session of Congress on AI, saying the technology’s rapidly evolving risks and opportunities require urgent attention. Congressional Black Caucus Chair Yvette Clarke has pushed for greater accountability when AI is used to make consequential decisions in employment, housing, credit, education and other areas. And the NAACP is challenging the expansion of AI data centers over concerns including pollution, water and energy use, utility costs and insufficient community input.

Those questions are now playing out here in Chicago, where Mayor Brandon Johnson has proposed a one-year moratorium on new or expanded data centers while the city develops regulations addressing their effects on energy, water, pollution and residents’ quality of life.

Those concerns illustrate why inclusion must be part of what we mean by responsible AI. Responsible AI cannot mean only preventing AI from someday escaping human control. It also has to mean making sure the AI we are deploying today does not deepen inequities we already know too well.

The Gates Foundation’s new Goalkeepers report emphasizes that AI could become a powerful equalizer or deepen existing inequalities. The foundation is putting its money where its mouth is, committing at least $1 billion over two years to expand access to AI and help ensure its benefits reach people who might otherwise be left behind.

Bill Gates writes that the people with the greatest needs often have the least power to determine where innovation and investment go.

That sounds eerily familiar.

Black Americans know from experience that national progress does not guarantee racial equality. The United States has grown richer, stronger and more technologically advanced while Black people have too often been denied an equal opportunity to share in that progress.

We should not repeat that pattern with AI.

Going all-in cannot mean committing everything to making the technology more powerful and then hoping safety, opportunity and equity somehow catch up.

Going all-in means going all-in on responsibility, too.

All-in on technical safety. All-in on privacy. All-in on preparing workers. All-in on helping schools and students navigate the technology wisely. All-in on preventing old biases from becoming automated ones. And all-in on making sure Black students, workers, professionals and entrepreneurs can help shape AI and benefit from it rather than simply absorb its disruptions.

The AI industry is already going all-in on development. Black people should insist that responsibility includes us, too.

We don’t know how our country’s gamble on AI will turn out. But Black people need a seat at the table so we can play our hand.

The post Responsible AI Development Requires a Seat at the Table for Black America appeared first on Chicago Defender.

Based on reporting by Chicago Defender.

By Carla Thomas

More than 75 people gathered at Youth UpRising in East Oakland on Friday, Sept. 18, for Coliseum 60, a celebration honoring six decades of sports, entertainment, employment and community memories connected to the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Complex.

Held 60 years to the day after the Coliseum opened, the event carried the theme, “One Community. One Legacy. One Future. Forward Together.”

The celebration opened with the national anthem performed by sisters Anese Jade, Amina Benjamin and Zaza Benjamin. Diamano Coura West African Dance Company contributed African dance and drumming, bringing movement, rhythm and cultural expression to the program.

A mini documentary highlighted the Coliseum’s sports history and its broader role as an entertainment destination. Archival material recalled performances by Prince and Tina Turner, along with memorable games featuring the Warriors, Oakland A’s and Raiders.

“The Coliseum 60 is about much more than celebrating a building or looking back at 60 years of history,” said event organizer Quixote Atkins of VillageGIVE.

“It’s about the people who made that history possible: the families, workers, athletes, artists, community leaders, fans and generations who gathered there and created memories together.”

A panel exploring that history featured author, historian and former Black Panther Party member Tareka Lewis; stagehand and union representative Keith Brown; and Ray Bobbitt, president of the African American Sports and Entertainment Group AASEG. Lewis described her family as fourth-generation Bay Area pioneers.

“My family and Black families who arrived even earlier helped build the Bay Area, grew businesses and established culture here,” Lewis said. “This should be taught in the public schools.”

Lewis recalled Oakland’s influence on sports, music and literature, from the Raiders’ beginnings at Laney College to stars such as The Pointer Sisters and Rickey Henderson who attended Oakland public schools. She also advocated for school museums, historical timelines, entrepreneurship training and investments benefiting corridors such as Bancroft Avenue and High Street.

Keith Brown, a member of Local 107 of the International Alliance of Theater and Stage Employees (IATSE) who began working at the Coliseum in 2011, remembered the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, the Ice Capades, baseball bat giveaways and Nelson Mandela’s 1990 appearance.

“The special events are amazing, but it’s the workers that make the memories real for everyone,” Brown said. “They make the magic happen at the Coliseum.”

The program recognized longtime workers, including beer-stand manager Robert Preston, who served for 40 years, and Kenyatta Gentry, who worked as a vendor for 24 years and used her earnings to purchase her first apartment. Union workers Jose Gonzales and Carmen Sandoval were also honored. Speakers emphasized that Coliseum employment provided generations of residents with union wages and benefits.

Dr. Denise Saddler, the superintendent of the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) was also honored. Saddler shared her family’s history of working at the Coliseum. 

District 7 Oakland City Councilmember Ken Houston discussed the complex ownership arrangements involving the city, county and private interests.

“This was the most complex deal of its kind in the country,” Houston said.

Prior to moving from the East Coast, Alameda County Supervisor and Coliseum Joint Powers Authority Chair Nate Miley recalled learning about Oakland through its three professional sports teams. As an elected official and public servant, Miley fought hard to keep the Golden State Warriors, Oakland As, and the Raiders, but he is hopeful for the future.

“The story is not over for the Coliseum,” Miley said. “We’re entering a new chapter.”

Bobbitt said the departure of three teams had once seemed unimaginable, but he maintained that Oakland’s future remains bright.

“Oakland is a cultural superpower worldwide,” Bobbitt said. “We’re going to write the future where we participate and drive the redevelopment.”

Bobbitt highlighted AASEG’s four-year partnership with Castlemont High School’s architecture program, which engages students in reimagining and creating redevelopment concepts for the Coliseum property. “The youth will always move us forward. They are the future.”

In closing, Atkins said, “September 18 is the celebration, but what we build together afterward is the legacy.”

By Ken Epstein

County’s letter counters critics who offer Doomsday scenarios for Oakland schools

The Oakland Unified School District, under the leadership of a new board majority and new superintendent, recently submitted a budget to the county “that is a materially stronger submission than the district has filed in recent years, (which) reflects difficult and deliberate work,” according to a letter to the district from Supt. Alysse Castro of the Alameda County Office of Education.

While OUSD still must make more budget cuts in the next two years, the district is on the road to financial health, according to a Sept. 15 letter from Castro to the district.

Under the California Education Code, Alameda County and other county offices of education (COEs) have the legal responsibility to review, approve, conditionally approve, or disapprove local school district annual budgets and interim financial reports.

“The Alameda County Office of Education wants to acknowledge that the district has submitted a budget that shows a positive fund balance, meets the state minimum reserve for economic uncertainty in each year of the multiyear project and is accompanied by a board-adopted commitment to close the remaining structural challenges,” the letter said.

“After two decades of state receivership and significant changes in OUSD’s budgeting practices,” it is understandable that there may be “considerable confusion” in the public about the district’s current financial condition, according to the letter.

However, the district’s current fiscal position and practices are “materially” better than prior years, though they “do not yet eliminate underlying structural challenges,” the letter continued.

Castro also commended the board and staff for working to get their financial house in order.

“There are three essential parts to addressing a structural deficit: staff must identify and bring

forward hard choices; the governing board must make those choices; and staff must follow

through and implement them,” she wrote.

“All three appear to be happening in OUSD, and that represents meaningful progress,” she wrote. “The district has made significant reductions to ongoing expenditures, increased its use of available restricted resources, and adopted a plan to address the remaining gap.”

According to the County, the district already has approved budget cuts of about $30 million in the current year. Additional reductions of about $30 million will be necessary next year, and another $11 million the following year.

These cuts are necessary, the county says, because “the district is still operating at a structural

deficit, meaning spending more every year than it brings in.” 

In a statement released earlier this month, the district announced it had “finished the year with $170.1 million in its General Fund and an unrestricted reserve of $32.3 million, finishing $16.4 million ahead of what the district projected in March.”

The budget reflects progress toward putting the district in a stronger financial position to better serve students and families, said district leaders, while also acknowledging the need for significant reductions across the board.

“This turnaround happened because our board was willing to make difficult decisions rather than pass them along, and because our staff did the work,” said Supt. Dr. Denise Saddler. “None of this came easily, and there is more ahead of us. What these closed books show is that the direction is right.”

In October 2025, the board directed staff to prepare budget scenarios totaling $100 million in adjustments. In December, presented with a choice between borrowing to bridge the gap and making the reductions directly, the board chose the latter, the district statement said. As part of the reduction plan, the board approved cuts to more than 400 certificated and classified positions, along with a retirement incentive that converted some layoffs into voluntary departures.

“Closing our books is not the same as finishing the work, and we are not stopping here,” said Tara Gard,deputy superintendent of Business and Operations. “We will continue with the actions in our Financial Stabilization Plan because of where they lead.”

In a statement released on social media, Oakland Education Association (OEA) President

Kampala Taiz-Rancifer strongly criticized those who allege the district is collapsing and supported members of the school board majority who are working hard to stabilize the district’s finances while minimizing disruption for schools and employees.

Jennifer Brouhard (D2) and Valarie Bachelor (D6), who are running for reelection, “are moving the district toward a ‘materially stronger’ financial position than we’ve seen in recent years—all while investing in school sites and the employees who serve Oakland students,” she wrote.

“For years, we’ve heard billionaire-backed board members say they had to make ‘tough choices’ to balance the budget,” she continued. “Those choices almost always caused disruption and instability for our schools and communities. This is a different approach: financial stability alongside investments in students, schools, and workers. All in the effort to improve student outcomes.”

“The real hard work is tuning out the rage bait, the chaos agents, the attacks on unions and workers, and ignoring the loud corporate profiteers—and staying focused on what matters: improving outcomes for students while creating stable teaching and learning conditions,” said Taiz-Rancifer.

“Let’s not go backward into the days of manufactured panic.”

NABJ condemns President Donald Trump’s decision to deny access to MS NOW journalists and his threat to exclude CNN and Politico because of coverage he dislikes. The role of journalists is to hold power accountable on behalf of the American people. Government officials cannot reward reporting they find favorable with access, or withhold access as punishment for journalists who have scrutinized or criticized them. This retaliation is a threat not only to the news organizations being targeted, but to every journalist working to report independently and without fear of government reprisal. The White House belongs to the American people, and they have a right to know what their government is doing. Journalists must be free to ask difficult questions and report the answers. A free and independent press is not a privilege granted at the discretion of any president. It is a cornerstone to a healthy and functioning democracy. The First Amendment can never be optional.

Based on reporting by Texas Metro News.

Commissioners from HBCU athletic conferences joined university presidents and corporate leaders in Washington on Tuesday, Sept. 15, for the Salute to HBCU Sports Leadership Reception — an invitation-only gathering aimed at deepening investment in historically Black colleges and universities.

Hosted at Gensler’s K Street office, the evening brought together conference commissioners, campus presidents, and executives from sports, media and design organizations under the theme “Building Partnerships. Celebrating Excellence. Advancing HBCUs.” Gensler highlighted its partnership with Paxton Baker on the event in a post on Instagram, showcasing the room full of HBCU presidents and conference leaders.

Five Conferences, One Room

Commissioners from four NCAA conferences and one NAIA conference were on hand, representing institutions that compete across Division I, Division II and the NAIA:

Anthony Holloman — Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Charles McClelland — Southwestern Athletic Conference Jacqie McWilliams Parker — Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association Sonja Stills — Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Kiki Baker Barnes — HBCU Athletic Conference

Their presence linked leadership from across the HBCU athletics landscape with campus administrators and organizations working in event management, design and media.

Presidents and Black Press Leadership in the Room

Among the university presidents in attendance were Prairie View A&M’s Tomikia P. LeGrande and Bowie State’s Aminta H. Breaux.

LeGrande’s appearance came just days after the Thurgood Marshall College Fund named her the recipient of its Educational Leadership Award, as announced by Prairie View A&M. She was honored at TMCF’s 39th Anniversary Gala on Sept. 12 in Washington. LeGrande has served as Prairie View A&M’s ninth president since June 2023.

Breaux, who has led Bowie State since July 2017, previously chaired the CIAA’s board of directors, according to her university biography.

Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., president and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, also attended — fitting, given the NNPA’s role as one of the reception’s presenting partners. Chavis and HBCU GO’s Lawrencia Moten conducted two 30-minute interview sessions with the conference commissioners, covering topics ranging from the NIL era to conference growth and the experience of leading HBCU athletics, according to HBCU GO President Curtis Symonds, who spoke with HBCU Legends about the sessions.

Corporate and Institutional Partners

Five organizations presented the reception together:

Gensler — the architecture and design firm that hosted the event Events DC — the District’s convention and sports authority USA Track & Field — the sport’s national governing body National Newspaper Publishers Association — representing Black newspaper publishers HBCU GO — the network dedicated to HBCU sports and culture

That mix of partners pointed to a range of possible collaborations ahead, from athletic facilities and event operations to sports programming and media coverage.

Building Beyond the Scoreboard

What stood out most was the mix of people in the room — conference commissioners setting strategy for their leagues, university presidents shaping institutional priorities, and corporate partners bringing resources and expertise from multiple industries.

With college athletics undergoing rapid change, particularly for HBCUs navigating the NIL era and shifting conference dynamics, the reception offered a venue for candid conversation and relationship-building. Its underlying purpose went beyond athletics: using sports as an entry point to broader opportunities in education, workforce development and economic growth for HBCUs.

Based on reporting by Columbus Times.

WASHINGTON — Among the more than 100 policy forums and brain trusts at this year’s Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Annual Legislative Conference was a conversation about influence itself: who has it, and what they do with it.

"Platforms & Purpose: A Conversation With Black Men Leveraging Their Reach" brought together actor and activist Kendrick Sampson, Rep. Jasmine Crockett, media personality Jason Lee, singer Eric Benét and rapper and radio host Yung Joc. The session looked at how entertainers, creators and elected officials can turn public attention into real-world change.

The panel took place at the 55th Annual Legislative Conference, a five-day event in Washington that began Wednesday. This year’s theme is "Rooted, Ready & Rising," and the conference coincides with the CBC Foundation’s 50th anniversary. CBCF President and CEO Nicole Austin-Hillery has said the gathering is meant to "combine celebration with purpose," while taking up issues including voting rights, economic opportunity, education, health disparities and criminal justice.

That mix of celebrity and policy is a long-running feature of the conference, which brings lawmakers, advocates, entrepreneurs, students and entertainers into the same rooms. The panel’s premise reflects a broader question as creators reach audiences that rival traditional media.

A career built on both stage and street

Sampson is a natural fit for that conversation. The Houston native is known for television and film work, including HBO’s Insecure, and for his activism off screen. He co-founded BLD PWR, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that combines entertainment, education and activism.

The organization says its mission is to "reimagine and realize the liberated future we know our people deserve." It works to mobilize entertainment-industry figures and organize communities around racial, gender, immigration, economic and environmental justice, mental health and wellness, and opposition to state violence. BLD PWR emphasizes storytelling and community healing, and it centers the voices of Black, Indigenous and other marginalized communities.

What to watch

The conference runs through Sunday at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. Details on sessions and registration are available through the CBC Foundation.

Based on reporting by Columbus Times.