OpEd

Two Years Later, Breonna Taylor’s Family Continues to Seek Justice

Breonna Taylor’s family, friends and supporters continue to demand justice after marking the two-year anniversary of her death on March 13, 2022.

And while a few Black men unjustly killed by law enforcement, most notably George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery, have been allowed to finally rest in peace, for Black women like Breonna Taylor, one has to wonder why her soul’s cries for justice remain unanswered.

It may be Women’s History Month but women, especially Black women, still find themselves relegated in spaces behind men, color notwithstanding.

In downtown Louisiana on Sunday afternoon, a section of the square was filled with blue and silver balloons while Breonna’s family, joined by demonstrators and organizers, gathered to remember the young Black woman who died in a police raid gone bad.

Taylor's mother, Tamika Palmer, stood at the center of a memorial made up of paintings, posters and flowers. She released the last balloon into the air as the crowd shouted Taylor’s name.

The memorial occurred just weeks after one of the Kentucky police officers involved in the raid, Brett Hankison, was found not guilty on charges he endangered neighbors the night he fired into Taylor's apartment. Sadly, his acquittal more than likely has shut the door on the possibility of state criminal charges against any of the officers involved in the raid. None of the officers involved were charged with the 26-year-old Black woman’s death.

Taylor, an emergency medical technician, was shot multiple times during the raid in her apartment during which no drugs were found. As for the warrant, it was later determined to be flawed.

During the memorial, Taylor's aunt, Bianca Austin, condemned the Hankison verdict saying the Louisville Metro Police Department has not been transparent with Taylor's family or the city's Black residents.

“Kentucky has failed Breonna Taylor,” Austin said. “Kentucky has failed our community. We demand the truth, we demand transparency. We are going to continue to demand answers and we're gonna continue to keep pressure on the Louisville Metro Police Department who continues to fail us and our community.”

Many have suggested that disgruntled citizens show their displeasure by voting out Jefferson Circuit Judge Mary Shaw who signed the warrant for the raid and is up for reelection in 2022.

And there’s the off chance that an ongoing federal investigation could be more extensive and provide a last chance for justice for the death of Breonna Taylor.

But experts say it’s doubtful.

It’s enough to make a grown man or woman cry. WI

Two Years Later, COVID-19 is Still Here

Spring is in the air just days before it officially arrives on March 22. Flowers are blooming, trees are budding and all eyes are on the arrival of the Cherry Blossoms at the Tidal Basin and in Oxon Run Park in Southeast.

Daylight savings time is here, too, and permanently if the Senate has its way. A bill which passed unanimously on Tuesday will head to the House of Representatives for approval and then to President Biden’s for his signature. No longer will we spend days remembering to spring forward or fall back. Our clocks will stay the same.

In cities and states across the country, mask mandates have been loosened or lifted, leaving the choice up to individuals to wear one or not. The recent change deflated efforts by the “Freedom Convoy” of truckers who passed through D.C. They ended up trying to redefine their protest after driving for miles across the country to demand the end to mask and vaccination mandates already removed.

Still, there is evidence of reluctance by many who refuse to believe the CDC or local officials who advise that it is okay to remove their masks. The CDC said it was okay this time last year; then we were faced with the Delta variant. Not long after, the Omicron variant emerged and while incidents of infections and death rates declined, the virus continued to spread.

This week, media organizations reported that a new Omicron “stealth” variant has contributed to the rise of COVID-19 cases in Europe in countries that include France, Switzerland, Italy and the Netherlands. In Germany alone, there are reportedly more than 250,000 new cases of infections per day. ported a day.

There is no denying that COVID is a deadly virus that has ended the lives of more than 964,000 Americans over the past two years. COVID long haulers continue to suffer from the effects of the virus, and others may never recover from the COVID-related deaths of their loved ones.

It’s been two years since COVID took over our lives and it’s still here. No matter how free spring may make us feel, we cannot ignore the dangers of COVID. The virus is still with us and spreading among us every day. WI

I’m just writing to say how much I appreciate receiving my weekly free copy of the Washington Informer. I make sure to grab one as soon as it comes out on Thursday because if not, they will be all gone. I’ve been a loyal reader for years and I’ll continue to be. Keep up the great work!

Lynette Thomson Washington, DC

TO THE EDITOR

I have an idea for the Washington Informer. It’s not totally inventive but something I think can make a big impact on myself and others. It would be awesome for the newspapers to host workshops on different topics for the community. I say bring your health, financial, educational and wellness supplements to life with an in-person instructor who is an expert on the subject. What do you think? Let me know.

Ray Phills Hyattsville, Md.

Readers' Mailbox The Washington Informer welcomes letters to the editor about articles we publish or issues affecting the community. Write to: lsaxton@washingtoninformer. com or send to: 3117 Martin Luther King Jr Ave., SE, Washington, D.C. 20032. Please note that we are unable to publish letters that do not include a full name, address and phone number. We look forward to hearing from you.

Guest Columnist

David W. Marshall

Race, Democracy and Ukraine

Just when you say it can’t get any worse, it gets worse. After two years, we are still in the midst of a deadly pandemic resulting in the loss of over 900,000 American lives. Last year, we witnessed our fellow Americans attack the U.S. Capitol to overturn a presidential election. Now, due to Russia’s premeditated and unprovoked attack on its sovereign neighbor, the world is watching as war crimes are being carried out daily against innocent civilians. Russia’s unjust invasion of Ukraine is constantly compared to Adolf Hitler’s 1939 invasion of Poland. Governments have ways of shifting over time. In the past, two neighboring countries (Poland and Ukraine) were both ruled by Communist governments. Today, those governments are free democracies. Democracy in and of itself is not a flawed system of government, but many individuals who hold positions of authority within a democracy can be morally deficient. The principles of democracy can be weakened—internally and externally—at the hands of people with little or no respect for the rule of law, fair elections, or humanity. As a result, innocent people needlessly suffer or die with no just cause.

As refugees seek to leave Ukraine for safety, we are again reminded that the suffering met by people of color is often compounded in any negative situation. It’s a sad but proven truth. Many international students wanting to study medicine were drawn to Ukraine because of its strong reputation for medical schools. Now those same Indian and African nationals living in Ukraine are reporting discrimination and hostility while attempting to flee the country. As they reach the Polish-Ukrainian border, they are being turned away and not allowed to cross. Even during this vast humanitarian crisis, the color of a person’s skin remains a disqualifying criterion, which, in this case, puts human lives further at risk and in danger. While democracy is a form of unity, unity includes fundamental rules of empathy and compassion where “no one gets left behind.” Ukraine, like America, has its areas of moral strength and those of moral weakness.

But democracy requires moral leadership. Everyone who holds a leadership position is not a leader. Leaders who cannot inspire others often resort to manipulation. Whenever you manipulate and intimidate people, you are no longer a true leader–you have become a dictator. Vladimir Putin is a dictator who hates democracy. He also hates NATO because it represents a coalition of nations standing on the concept of freedom and unity. Unfortunately, there are those in America who are attracted to the authoritarian character of dictators. For that reason, we are seeing a growing number of pro-Russia Americans at levels never seen before. It symbolizes part of a global cultural war where many far-right extremists accept Russia as the last bastion of white purity. This

Guest Columnist

Ben Jealous

From Selma to the Supreme Court, We Are Still Making History

History was made in Selma, Alabama, on March 7, 1965. Alabama state troopers viciously attacked peaceful voting rights marchers at the Edmund Pettus Bridge. The troopers were hoping to stop the voting rights movement in its tracks. But their violence did the opposite. Televised images of “Bloody Sunday” offended the conscience of people of good faith around the country. The movement was energized. And soon, the federal Voting Rights Act became law.

Voting rights activists were back in Selma this month to commemorate history—and to make it.

Vice President Kamala Harris spoke at the Edmund Pettus bridge. As the first Black woman to hold that high office, she embodies many of the victories of the civil rights movement. From that “hallowed ground,” she spoke truth about the “un-American” laws that have passed in many states to make it harder for Black people and others to vote.

Vice President Harris recognized that 2022 is not 1965, as her presence made clear. “We again, however, find ourselves caught in between,” she said.

“Between injustice and justice. Between disappointment and determination. Still in a fight to form a more perfect union. And nowhere is that clearer than when it comes to the ongoing fight to secure the freedom to vote.”

The threat to voting rights today comes most directly from state legislators and governors putting laws in place that make it harder for Black people and others to vote. The threat also comes from a far-right-dominated Supreme Court that has mostly abandoned voting rights in favor of “states’ rights.” In a 2013 decision in a case that began in Shelby County, Alabama, the court’s majority gutted a section of the Voting Rights Act that prevented states from imposing racially discriminatory changes in voting laws and regulations. Since then—and especially since historic turnout by Black voters helped defeat Donald Trump’s reelection bid— legislators in state after state have passed new barriers to voting. The Supreme

Guest Columnist

Robert Collins

Why Voters Have the Right to a Real Chance at Representation

The lawful and efficient exercise of Democracy in the United States depends on voters being able to freely choose their leaders. In spite of that ideal, every ten years we subvert that process and instead allow leaders to choose their voters. We call this process Redistricting. Parts of this process are necessary and proper. It is necessary every ten years to take Census data and re-balance voting populations so that districts have roughly equal populations.

This assures fair representation so that each voter can be confident that their vote carries the same weight as the vote of a citizen in a neighboring district. The problem is that, in most states, the process is primarily designed to protect the self-interests of incumbents, rather than the interest of the voters. The leaders get to choose their own voters.

There are exceptions. Twenty-one states currently use some form of bipartisan or nonpartisan commissions to redraw legislative district lines every ten years. The purpose of these commissions is to avoid the inherent ethical conflict of interest of having legislators draw their own districts, knowing that there will always be a natural human tendency to protect oneself from the opposition. Louisiana is not one of those commission states. Louisiana still allows its legislature to draw its own lines.

As expected, we already see signs that the tendency toward self-preservation is overpowering the legal requirement of fair representation of voters. For example, in the last US Census, the Black population of Louisiana increased by 4%, while the white population decreased by 6%. The Black population is currently 33%. In spite of this fact, the most recent legislative district map passed by the legislature, as of this writing, only has 29 majority-Black districts in the House of Representatives, out of a total of 105, for 28%. The growth in the Black population would seem to justify four Black-majority House seats being added. That total was 29 ten years ago as well.

Only one of the state’s Congressional districts is majority-Black. There are six districts, so one only represents about 16.6% of the population. Two majority-black districts would account

MARSHALL Page 37

Court is letting them get away with it.

And just recently the Supreme Court’s far-right justices allowed Alabama to hold elections this year using racially gerrymandered congressional maps created by the state legislature. That was another signal to Black voters and voting rights supporters that the current court majority cannot be counted on to protect our rights.

We must organize. We must elect pro-voting-rights majorities in Congress and state legislatures wherever we

JEALOUS Page 37

COLLINS Page 37

Guest Columnist

Quit Playin’

It just irks me and rattles me to my bones to watch Black people major in the minors and minor in the majors. We have enough negative stereotypes as it is. But this "attitude" thing just kills me. On social media, in person, or wherever I see it.

Some days, it seems like people are ready for a fight everywhere I go. What's worse is that the offenders are punching down rather than up. We beat up on underpaid store clerks and wait staff. Too many of us aim straight to fisticuffs without ever considering one another's feelings or position.

You never know when you are looking square in the eyes of someone who just lost a job, a loved one, or their righteous mind. My “Papa” also had some advice that bears repeating and retelling.

My paternal grandfather, Ed Hall, did not play. No one would ever have to tell you to quit playin' because it never got started with him. But, as he has passed on so many adages to me, let me share one with you for the sake of those raising children.

Papa would often say, "It's nice to be nice, but when you can't, kick 'em in the ass.”

With no change in either his resonate tenor or in his expression, Papa would make his usual recital, and I was always left wondering what the hell he meant. It took me several years and lots of social and business interactions, but I finally got it. So, quit playin’ and listen!

The concept of "attitude" did not commence with the entrance of any one race of people. I would be personally pleased to remand it to the court of its original ethnicity. Watching TikTok and other social media outlets, has bought my hypothesis to the conclusion that even white folk who want to be like us quickly adopt what they believe to be our main ingredient: an attitude!

When Papa said it's nice to be nice, he meant that one should carry and respond with a pleasant and courteous demeanor, first and for as long as possible.

However, if your original offer of respect and civility is met with resistance and callousness, then the time has come to fight. Unfortunately, many of our children have an attitude without a cause.

We are a people who have

All of this “mean-mugging" and looking tough, as well as the plain disrespect that is obvious in our children, is not in our heritage and new to our culture. My grandmother told me to raise children well enough that someone besides me would like them! been genetically blessed with the ability for humor and goodwill. Your children should know that a win-

Vincent L. Hall

HALL Page 46

Guest Columnist

Herstory Once Again

Once again, the calendar cycles to the month of March. By now, everyone understands that the month of March has been designated as Women’s History Month. This observance shares a great deal with Black History Month, Hispanic Heritage Month, Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and other ethnic and “special” observances. They serve as occasions when marginalized groups can honor their ancestors and predecessors, and celebrate the contributions of their respective groups to the prosperity and general well-being of what has been called the greatest nation in recorded history.

Consistent with the negative consequences of other observances, Women’s History Month provides those who are party to or sympathetic with the marginalization of women an opportunity to trivialize or minimize the significance of women’s contributions. The metric they use to assess the importance of women’s participation in the life of our nation is the amount of time dedicated in their honor each year.

As absurd as that attitude might be, even more absurd is how the word history is treated contextually. For far too many, the word ‘history’ is perceived to only refer to whites. In the perception of others and the context of racism, the contributions of Black women to this nation are frequently disregarded and considered as unsubstantial or nonexistent.

From the time that the first Afri-

E. Faye Williams

cans set foot on what would become the United States in 1619, Black people, and Black women specifically, have played an integral role in the growth and success of this nation. Reading this will make thousands of whites “uncomfortable” and, in the minds of many of them, disqualify the legitimacy of this information, but, for over two hundred years enslaved women were nursemaids for generations of white babies. Black women could sustain white babies with their life-giving breast milk, but neither they, nor their offspring, could enjoy the liberties of free and autonomous people.

Enslaved Black women not only gave life to white babies, their free labor gave life to a fledgling economy that would eventually grow to become the largest in world history. Cotton was King and the commodity which would lead the United States to the pinnacle of world economies. The Black woman was largerthan-life in her contribution to that economy.

WILLIAMS Page 46

Guest Columnist

Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr.

Robert F. Smith, Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan, Frank Baker and William Pickard Top List of Black Donors to HBCUs

Billionaire philanthropist and novelist MacKenzie Scott’s $560 million donation last year to 23 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) made headlines across the country at a time when racial equity has become front-page news. However, for decades Black leaders in business, entertainment, education, and other fields have been the main sources of philanthropic donations to HBCUs. A recent Washington Post story found that Black Americans donate a higher share of their wealth than their white counterparts – to the tune of around $11 billion each year. Given their cultural and educational importance to the Black community, HBCUs are the repository of much of these donations with a number of household names – and some you may not know – making big-dollar contributions to these institutions. Here are some of the most prominent Black philanthropists to donate to HBCUS: Robert F. Smith – Chairman & CEO, Vista Equity Partners Smith, the billionaire investor behind the software private equity firm Vista Equity Partners, drew widespread praise in May 2019 when he announced that he and his family would pay off the entire student loan debt of the 2019 Morehouse College graduating class of 396 students. Along with paying off the student debt, Smith’s $35 million donation also helped establish the Student Success Program to reduce or eliminate debt for all Morehouse grads. The private equity guru also gave the school an additional $1.5 million to create the Robert Frederick Smith Scholars Program and build a park on campus. As board chair of the Student Freedom Initiative – a plan to provide STEM students at HBCUs with a family-centric, income-contingent payment alternative to highcost, fixed-payment debt – Smith pledged $50 million. Smith’s donation jump started the initiative, which hopes to raise $500 million for the effort and began operations in the fall of 2021 at eleven HBCUs. "Each year, thousands of Black graduates from HBCUs across America enter the workforce with CHAVIS Page 46