C e l e b r a t i n g 2 7 Ye a r s o f Service in Inglewood, Airport area Communities
City of Champions Your Community Connection Since 1994
EYE ON THE CITY Rams
Chargers
Clippers
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Forum
& Lakers
Derwin James and Oakley Team Up... See Page 5
Mayor James T. Butts refutes report
of team owners offer to buy local homes Smiley radio vision cuts through conservative imbroglio
KBLA Talk 1580 is Los Angeles’ first and only “Unapologetically Progressive” talk radio station for the AfricanAmerican listening audience!! Helmed by media personality, author and philanthropist Tavis Smiley of Smiley Audio Media Inc., KBLA Talk 1580, is the only Black-owned and operated talk station in Southern California! Photo by Karim Saafir Photography By Kenneth Miller, Publisher
During a recent culturally themed and timely orchestrated roundtable Chef Marilyn soul food lunch discussion with Black media outlets, veteran media pundit and renowned activist Tavis Smiley reintroduced himself. Not that Smiley, 57, really needed to do so. After all, for two decades he’s been a fixature on television at BET and radio at NPR (National Public Radio) and Public Radio International, but on two occasions the final chapters were not written the way Smiley would have preferred. Smiley hosted BET Tonight until 2001 when, in a controversial move, the network then owned by Robert L. Johnson refused to renew his contract, sparking outrage from Smiley followers who rallied to his defense on his radio broadcast. Always adamant about owning content much like Ray Charles owned his masters, Smiley sold an interview to rival network ABC, he said, only after CBS passed on the interview, and suggested that his firing was payback for the publicity he gained as a result of providing an exclusive interview to Continued on page 7
By Brea Mitchell, Staff Writer
On July 15, reports of hostility from the city towards long-time Inglewood residents was the talk of the town. The reports were published by a fairly well-known and popular community blog-type website, which claimed that Clippers owner Steve Ballmer and Rams owner Stan Kroenke were set to offer certain Inglewood residents $1 million for their homes. The blog post claimed that there had been a Zoom call on July 13 with homeowners in Carlton Square, where the proposal of buying the SoFi Stadium-adjacent homes was brought up. According to Inglewood Mayor James Butts, this claim by the popular blog is completely false. No such Zoom call has happened, and residents in Carlton Square have not been incentivized to sell their homes, and Mayor Butts wants to make that clear. “The claim is completely false and utterly without foundation. Quite simply, it is a lie. The concept makes no sense economically or socially. The city would never allow the rezoning of residential neighborhoods. The owners cited have never approached the city with any such proposal. It appears that the writer is intentionally trying to generate fear and contention in the community. Inglewood continues to move forward for its residents and children,” says Mayor Butts. The article went on to target the mayor in the debacle, claiming that if Carlton Square residents refuse to sell, Mayor Butts will then invoke eminent domain. The mayor intently denies
such claims. The lack of validity in the article’s claims are evident, as it includes quotes from residents who “refuse to be identified”, and even the blanket amount of $1 million for each home in
the area isn’t logical. Hours after the blog’s original article was posted, it was updated to state that “no offers have been made to owners, however, select residents were shared plans of what’s to come.”
Reparations Task Force Agrees It Needs the Ideas, Input of Black Californians Antonio Ray Harvey | California Black Media
On July 9, California’s Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans held its second meeting in a series of 10. During the Zoom conference, the group’s nine members shared differing views on how to best get Black Californians involved in their deliberations. But they all agreed on one key point:
having voices and ideas of African Americans across the state influence their conversations would be the best approach to successfully accomplish their work. “A lot of things that’s important is we as a task force not let ourselves operate in a vacuum,” said Dr. Cheryl Grills, a member of the task force and professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. “Not to assume that the public
comments that happen at the end of our meetings are adequate to represent the community voice.” Grills delivered a presentation titled “A Community Engagement Strategy for Taskforce Consideration.” In it, she put forth a plan to get Black Californians involved. Grills suggested the task force hosts Continued on page 8
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