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Thursday, JUNE 18, 2020 •
The San Diego Voice & Viewpoint
www.sdvoice.info
MORE STATE AND LOCAL NEWS
MTS to Increase Capital “B” Trolley and Bus Service Black with a
Mainstream Media Join Black Press in Uppercasing Race
• Beginning Monday, June 15, weekday service on UC San Diego Blue Line increased to every 7.5 minutes to 7 p.m.
Tanu Henry California Black Media
• Bus service increases planned for the end of June • Bus operator seats are being retroVoice & Viewpoint Newswire The Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) will be helping San Diego residents get back to work as more businesses and destinations are allowed to open. MTS increased weekday midday service on the UC San Diego Blue Line beginning on Monday, June 15. This will be followed by service increases on many bus routes in late June. “As we continue the regional re-opening of our economy, we know more people will need the services that MTS provides. We want people to know that San Diego’s transit system will continue to be a safe and reliable option as possible,” said MTS Board Chair Nat ha n Fletcher. “We’ve strengthened our already-enhanced sanitizing protocols on vehicles and at stations and implemented policies to better-protect our passengers and employees. We are now increasing service to help reliability and allow for greater physical distancing of passengers.” Beginning Monday, June 15, the UC San Diego Blue Line Trolley, which connects the San Ysidro international border to Downtown San Diego, increased its service frequency to every 7.5 minutes
from 4:30 a.m. until 7 p.m., and keep 15-minute frequencies until 9 p.m., followed by every 30 minutes until the end of the service day.
25% on April 13 to address increase distance between the reality of record-low rid- passengers and the bus ership while still providing operator. critical service for essential workers and trips. Social distancing:
The new schedule can be accessed on the MTS website at https://www.sdmts. com/schedu les-rea l-time/ covid-19-updates.
While sitting, passengers should keep a 6-feet distance between each other and the bus operator when possible.
In addition to ser v ice increases, MTS also cont inues to improve its already-strict safety and sanitizing protocols. It will retrofit buses with germ barriers The service increase was to better protect bus operainitiated to accommodate tors. Barriers will also allow growing ridership since the the agency to return to frontweek of April 20 on the Blue door boarding giving pasLine. Average weekday rid- sengers more room to space ership has increased 28% out on board. MTS has only increase since then, topping allowed rear-door boarding out at 25,367 the week of since April 1 to protect the June 1. More frequency will health of bus operators. give more opportunity for passengers to practice social S a fe -t r ave l g u id e l i ne s: distancing on board and Passengers aboard any MTS on platforms when possible. bus or Trolley should conService on the Orange Line tinue to follow the social disand Sycuan Green Line will tancing guidelines and safety remain unchanged. measures to slow the spread of COVID-19. Other guideWhile Trolley service will lines and requirements while first be increasing to closely riding include: mirror pre-COVID levels, MTS is also making prepa- Face coverings: rations to increase bus service in the coming weeks. All passengers are required Schedules and routes are to wear a face covering while being finalized. The goal is using the transit system. to provide service increases that meet market demands. Rear-door boarding: MTS reduced weekday ser- Passengers must board from vice levels approximately the rear door on buses to
New studies show that limiting conversations when traveling on transit also helps limit transmission of viruses.
No-Contact Fare Purchase: Riders are encouraged to get bus or Trolley fares through the Compass Cloud app to minimize contact with machines, or other people. Cash is not accepted on bus, but fares are required to ride. MTS continues to operate about 95 bus routes and three Trolley lines. Frequencies and spans have been modified due to COVID-19. Updated schedules can be accessed on the MTS website: https:// w w w. s d m t s . c o m /s c h e d ules-real-time/covid-19-updates. MTS asks that people wear face coverings and practice physical distancing at all times.
Black Physicians Forum on Racial Disparities in Maternal Health
L a st we ek, Nor ma n Pearlstine, the editor of the LA Times, sent a memo to staffers announcing that the publication will begin capitalizing “B” in the word Black in its articles when referring to a race of people. That move puts the publication with the largest circulation in California in line with the way the majority of the Black Press in California and around the country have referred to African Americans for decades since they retired “Negro,” beginning in the 1960s to the early 1970s. Pearlstine also announced that the LA Times is taking steps to add more diversity to its newsroom by increasing the number of Black and Latino journalists on its staff. “Within the next two weeks we shall form a group to work on overhauling our hiring process,” Pearlstine wrote to employees. “The global pandemic and the global financial crisis constrain our ability to make a hiring commitment by a specific date. We can commit, however, that the next hires in Metro will be Black reporters, as we begin to address the underrepresentation.” In the wake of the brutal murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the violent protests that followed it, across America, more and more people have begun to point out, own up to, and apologize for abetting racism and anti-Blackness in all of their forms—explicit, subtle and systemic. Americans from all backgrounds have begun to publicly acknowledge how discrimination, over the years, have hurt and held back African Americans for centuries. Last week, other media organizations across the country, including BuzzFeed
By Vayunamu Bawa Contributing Writer
T he 10 t h A n n iversa r y Celebration of the Black Physicians Forum took place on Friday, June 12, 2020, on Zoom and Facebook Live. The conference was a partnership by The Sac Cultural Hub Media Foundation and The UC Davis Health Office for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. Doctors, mothers, and audience members came together to discuss Black maternal health. This year’s keynote speaker was Aletha Maybank, MD, M PH, Vic e P re sident , American Medical Association and the guest presenter was Dr. Olivia Kasirye, Sacramento County Public Health Officer. Olympic Gold Medalist-American track and field sprinter Allyson Felix and others shared their experiences with motherhood.
the opening remarks.
ing sites,” Kasiyre said.
“Our Black doctors bear the brunt of knowing that even in their white coats, those white coats may not save them from discrimination,” Tull said.
Maybank acknowledged the role of capitalism, slavery, and the settlement on native land to the health disparity between races. She quoted W.E.B. Du Bois who noted that social conditions, not inherent racial traits, determines health and she noted the need to recognize the root causes of health disparities in order to understand the situation today.
Dr. Kasiyre gave a special report on the impact of COVID-19 on Black mothers and babies. Black women, she said, are more likely to die during childbirth and from mostly preventable causes such as hypertension, hemorrhage, and embolism. It was stressed that it is important to meet women’s basic health needs right from birth instead of at the start of pregnancy.
A question from the audience touched on how individuals can protect themselves as businesses open up during the pandemic. “If you’re sick stay home. If you go out, do Dr. Renetta Garrison Tull, so with face coverings and Vice-Chancellor for Health wash your hands frequently. E qu it y, Diversit y a nd People also need to get tested Inclusion at UC Davis, gave now that there are more test-
support patients documenting their experiences because advocacy needs to be deeper.”
Shonda Moore shared her Allyson Felix, Olympic Gold Medalist story about her unconventional process for having a child and her experiences dealing with a rare type of cancer. Her greatest challenge in interacting with healthcare providers was, she said, “Definitely the implicit bias that African American women can withstand a lot “It’s not just about lifestyle choices; we have to under- of pain. It was also the physistand where the choices come cians’ lack of experience with Flojaune Cofer, PhD, MPH about. Everything isn’t about this type of cancer.” behaviors,” Maybank said. Black physicians and healthWhen asked about documen- care professionals do great tation when a person is being work in the community due to discriminated against while their commitment to achievreceiving tests and treatment, ing health equity. One takeMaybank responded, “I’m a full advocate for account- away from this forum is that ability and we hold systems other community members accountable in part by what can do their part by leading we record and measure. As policy change and communiAletha Maybank, MD, MPH physicians also, we need to ty-based education efforts.
News, NBC News, MSNBC, Metro Detroit, and others, announced that they have made the decision to begin capitalizing the “B” in Black as well. The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), the country’s largest professional organization of Black media professionals and journalism students, released a statement that said the organization has been writing Black with a capital “B” in all of its communications for about a year now. The NABJ is also recommending that “White” and “Brown” be capitalized, too, when referring to race. “It is equally important that the word is capitalized in news coverage and reporting about Black people, Black communities, Black culture, Black institutions, etc,” the NABJ statement said. Sarah Glover, past president of the NABJ, wrote a letter to the Associated Press (AP). “I’m writing today to request the mainstream news media begin capitalizing the “B” in Black when describing people and the community,” wrote Glover. “I’m also asking the AP to update its Stylebook to reflect this change, effective immediately,” Glover continued. “This book is the bible for working journalists [and] has tremendous impact as a wire service with more than 1,000 subscribers worldwide.” The New York Times, which adheres to its own style guide that is different from AP’s, also still uses Black with a lowercase B.
