Story Archives 2014

October 2014

Along with many things that are ever-changing in San Francisco is the crackdowns on the sidewalk grannies marketplace.

The sidewalk grannie market is generally elder female Chinese immigrants presumably selling odds and ends that they get for free.

They generally have fewer than 20 items at a time that range in price from 1-3 dollars.

The fact that most of them are elderly and barely speak any English if at all is a tribute to how desperate they are for this added income and a shame on the city that has its first Chinese /Asian American mayor in history, who apparently has no love or respect for the struggle of his forbearers, who made it possible for him to be where he is today.

Where is the humanity, love and compassion that was once the hallmark of San Francisco, a city that could once truly brag about its diversity, inclusion, and care for all of its citizens?

In a city like San Francisco, the mayor's office should be instrumental in forming some sort of entity that will help these elders utilize their life experience or make their language barrier a strength, rather than a liability that criminalizes their survival skills.

We can and should do better for our elders who have born so many burdens for us, yet in their time of need there are those that would send police to ticket or arrest them rather than lend a helping hand or guide them to the goods and services they need to not only survive but thrive as well.

These people could be trained to seek out others who speak their language during emergencies or other disasters.

When will the people who have come to our city, and use their privilege of wealth as if it's a right, and push around the people who made this city the great metropolis it once was, go away and return it to its greatness?

The incidents of these grannies being cited or run off is extremely disheartening, being that rules and laws are being bent for workers in the tech industry, for example sharing Muni bus stops with the Tech shuttle buses.

Hipsters and yuppies spread all over sidewalks while waiting in line to eat in trendy food places or bars without a single word being uttered by the police.

There is no such thing as elders living to an age of no longer being useful.

A purpose should be found for these folks, as elders are jewels of any society for their history experience as well as wisdom that they can pass along.

Do you frequent the farmer's market or shop organic produce thinking you are GMO-free?

You could be dead wrong. GMO's could be lurking where you least expect them!

My personal experience at the farmer's market recently made me suspect just this!

I bought an avocado and a bag of tomatoes thinking I was getting a good deal and fresh produce.

But what can you say about tomatoes that sit in a plastic bag in one spot for a week and show no signs of decay?

How about the fact that there was no juice when it was cut open?

The avocado was even worse!

It was not soft as a ripe avocado should be so I set it in a sunny spot in my window for several days, hoping it would ripen. Instead it got dark on the inside near the peel and was firm and crunchy near the pit.

Food that doesn't decay has very little nutritional value and is suspect of being GMO!

Don't be a victim. Look for labels or packaging that states that there are no GMO's!

From racist stereotypes to doctor errors, wite science/big pharma "cures", a so-called Homeless man on the loose in Dallas who "might" have Ebola and now the revelation of poor immigrants of color HELLthcare being one of the factors in Thomas Eric Duncan's death, I am reminded, as i often am, that Amerikkkan scarcity models kill. .

The Ebola virus is very serious, Ase and love to the children, elders, mamas and papaz who have transitioned because of it and prayers to all peoples who are sick right now, and to be perfectly clear I'm not making light of this deadly disease at all. Actually what i am trying to do is plead for a moment in time when this colonizer created empire stops operating under the killer scarcity models that continue to criminalize, profile, maim, destroy and incarcerate all of us Po folks everyday in amerikkka.

As poor peoples of color we are constantly subjected to scarcity models that rule over our food distribution by giving us only enough in food stamps to feed our families through the 15th or 20th of the month, welfare cash grants that are barely enough to afford to buy our homes toilet paper, school districts which continually profile and segregate our children based on their ability to pass wite-people created tests that aren't even relevant or comprehensible to their life experiences, indigenous languages or deep structures so our children can be shuttled into the school to prison pipeline. And equally deadly is the hater nation mentality that us poor peoples are lazy, stupid and/or crazy -dangerous and therefore should not recieve the food, healthcare or housing we need, but rather we should all be kept on a tight noose of hateful subsistance that barely keeps us alive, much-less able to thrive. And god forbid one of us houseless folks actually contracts "ebola" because thats all it would take for the hate to flow into a river of our blood in the streets.

Think what you will about the Ebola virus itself- i personally believe it was created by Big Pharma so they could earn billions of dollars on the eventual "vaccine" they have already created, not to mention the side benefit of killing off thousands of people so there can be a more colonizer land -grabs of fertile Mama Africa continent land for corporate agribusiness, etc.

The history of scarcity model hellthcare for Mr Duncan
In the case of Mr Duncan, we now know that not only was he a big-hearted hero who was practicing  inter-dependence by helping a pregnant young woman who was sick, which is how he got the virus in the first place, but he was rejected from the hospital when he first sought treatment because in classic scarcity model style, he had no health insurance.

I can't tell you how many time this poverty skola throughout my poor people life has sought treatment for myself and my mama when we were deathly ill only to be told, sorry no healthcare for you cause you have no insurance and no money. One of my favorite (not) moments was when i was barely able to breathe with serious asthma and told that i needed to pay "something" on an old bill or not get treatment or medicine at all . Add the fact that Mr Duncan was an African immigrant to deck stacked against him and you have a recipe for scarcity model murder.

Mr Duncan didn't get an experimental drug immediately
Mr Duncan received the so-called "experimental" medicine on October 4th -- six days after his second request for help, and two weeks after he originally received the misdiagnosis that he was ok and spit back out to society.

Mr. Duncan's admission to the hospital was a far longer wait than four other Ebola patients treated in the United States. Those patients -- two each at Atlanta's Emory University Hospital and the University of Nebraska Medical Center -- got experimental medicine immediately. They're all U.S. citizens; Duncan was a Liberian.

Many truths, un-listened to and under-appreciated have been told about Malaria, Small Pox, Polio and all the other diseases the colonizers scattered to and fro as part and parcel of their genocidal theft of Mama Earth and its earth peoples, but the genocide didn't end with the diseases themselves, but rather with the racism and classism that rule over their so-called cures

But now this deadly virus is here and for all of us peoples who subscribe, if even by default to the scarcity models that rule over this stolen, indigenous land- now more than ever we as a society, not just revolutionaries, but all peoples, must move off the lie of independence, i-got-mines- scarcity models and move into the light of inter-dependence.

We must as a society learn back our indigenous medicines, traditions, ceremonies, eldership and care-giving ways which we po, indigenous mamaz, uncles and aunties from Healthy Hoodz, POOR Magazine and Hekau Divine Youth Academy are actively teaching our young leaders in a school we call Deecolonize Academy. Equally important we must teach, speak and practice sharing, caring and inter-dependence. In even the smallest of ways this can make a difference. We must grow our own medicine even if its in a tiny box in our tiny SRO kitchens and then share that with our fellow poor and working class neighbors.

For those of you reading this in the health care industry - stop practicing your own forms of scarcity models, realize the opening of your hearts and the changing of protocols begins with all of you.

Mr. Duncan didn't need to be turned away , some caring hospital intake worker could have checked another box on that original intake form and like one unusually loving doctor told me once when i went to see him in a county clinic - the mandate of this clinic states that i should not give you free samples because you don't have insurance, but i know that's not right so i will give you them anyway.

Inter-dependence means our lives and thrival is threaded together. Rather than send out a hate bulletin for the houseless guy who might have Ebola and hasmat suits for Mr. Duncan's innocent family and neighbors, how about admitting him for care before he got too sick to save. That move would have saved him and all of us.

PNN-TV; Denika Chatman from Kenny Harding Jr Foundation speaks/teaches at Street Newsroom on Deep East TV to Youth Skolaz at Deecolonize Academy

Deecolonize Academy is a multi-generational home-skoo which happens on the sacred land at Homefulness launched by mama skolaz, uncle skolaz from Healthy Hoodz, POOR Magazine and Hekau Divine Youth Acdemy

Homefulness is a self-determined landless peoples movement in Deep East Ohlone Land on Black Arthur in CalifAztlan, Turlte Island

Deep East TV is filmed every thursday at Street Newsroom at Homefulness - 8032 BlackArthur bl along with a free healthy meal shared with community at the Sliding Scale Cafe

www.racepovertymediajustice.org/academy

October 7, 2014

Several years ago former San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom shared his vision of making SF the greenest city in America while in office. In more recent years Mayor Ed Lee has invited many tech giants into the city which has caused real estate prices to increase drastically. I have an idea that can address the holes in these two mayors' visions for the city.

With the drastic increase in real estate has come the displacement of many longtime and life-long residents of SF. They've had to seek housing in other places, some as close as the East Bay some farther away. This even resulted in Poor Magazine having to relocate to Deep East Oakland.

Many of these folks still have jobs and other obligations in SF, and have to commute long hours back and forth across the Bay.

Within the last year Muni has donated used buses to an organization called Lava Mae so they can be used as mobile showers for the homeless. (I almost want to say this was an idea that was stolen from me but it is far more important that people have their basic human needs met than to argue about who gets credit.)

I would however like to propose an idea that Muni donate outdated diesel buses to the people, for an organization run by the people, that get converted to bio-diesel and/or solar power to shuttle displaced people back and forth across the Bay.

Big tech giants have helped sponsor Lava Mae. Why not get bio-diesel and other green organizations to donate labor and parts to make this a reality?

On my way to the office today I notice the renewable energy fair was still happening. I stopped and talked briefly to a representative of Luminalt, a local woman-owned solar power company. Hopefully we will work together in the future.

Many of us rode a big yellow bus to school as kids. It's time we ride a big green bus to work not only to help our displaced brothers and sisters but also to honor our Mother Earth.

Power Tu D People!

October 7, 2014

It would seem that common courtesy and respect to elders is a thing of the past.

In my most recent travels I have noticed more and more, as I greet strangers, especially youth of color, that they rudely ignore me and even stare at me indignantly.

A colleague of mine, Norma, actually overheard a white woman tell her children “Oakland is a dumpster. Oakland is part of California, but it is the worst part because all the poor people from all over the world come to Oakland.”

It would appear that the youth of color are somehow being influenced by their white peers noy only to look down on their own elders of color, but also not to identify with them!

Thankfully there are places like DEEcolonize Academy in Deep East Oakland, as part of the landless peoples movement known as Homefulness, that teach eldership, respect, and appreciation for indengenous values as part of its curiculum.

Sadly enough it would seem that the rest of the youth of color are doomed to assimulate into the dominant culture in addition to coming to actually believe in its superiority over ancestral ways.

By briefly looking at widespread trends like crime rates and destruction of the enviroment, we can't help but realize this so-called "superiority" is so far from the truth. These trends are rather an indictment of how horrible and destructive the dominant culture really is.

Our youth of color appear to be doomed to learn the same tired old lies that their ancestors were savages fortunate enough to to be enslaved and conquered so they could become “civilized.”

As one of the greatest revolutinaries and ancestors Malcolm X once stated, “They identify more with their master than they do with their own Black selves....If the master got sick, the house Negro would say, 'What's the matter, boss, we sick?'...If the master's house caught on fire [they] would fight harder to put the blaze out than the master would."

The biggest tragedy of all is they think they are the “master's” peers, and feel no kinship whatsoever to their own forebearers. What will it take to wake these young people up?

Youth Skolaz from DeeColonize Academy RYME class learn about GentriFUKation and criminalization of us Po peoples of color in North Oakland from Aunti Frances Love Mission Self-Help Hunger Program —

"I will not stop until i get justice for my sun and all of our young people, said Frank Alvarado Sr, teacher and father of one of four po'lice shooting victims in Salinas who spoke at the 1st convening of the California Network for Revolutionary Change(CRNRC) spearheaded by Author, Poet Luis Rodriguez, his beautiful partner poet and cultural worker Trini Rodriguez, their sun and revolutionary Ramiro Rodriguez, comrade and revolutionary lawyer Anthony Prince and many more.

For more information on how to get involved in the CRNRC go to http://canetworkforrevolutionarychange.org/

Voter Suppression? or voter gentriFUKation- ?? one after the other states filled with poor and working class peoples of color -have been the victims of very serious bait and switch games with our votes. Couple the theft of peoples votes with the kkkorporate media  lies filling neo-fascist poor wite and working class peoples of all colors with hater-ism towards their fellow poor folks and you have a recipe for a blood-free 21st century wite-supremacist re-colonialonization of the tiny bit of democracy we thought we had in Amerikkka  

From actual voter theft by all kinds of address hustling, to profiling and dropping names off of lists, these few wealth-hoarders and land -stealers are moving like the gangsters in suits they are, landing this huge gaggle of old wite and newer wite people repupublicrats in the senate to control, override and take back any few gains us peoples have made,

But again this doesn't surprise me, there is absolutely no way the wite-supremacists behind the curtain will let this stolen land run any different than they ever envisioned it to since the lie of discovery and the so-called "founding" wite-fathers/land-stealers who created papers and laws and treaties that  say that they own Mama Earth and make the rules that they use against us to this day

And sadly i'm not at all surprised about the theft of our tiny little participation in the so-called democratic system which was built to intentionally incarcerate, mis-educate and confuse us peoples of color and indigenous peoples- Rich people started the theft of 1st Nations territory by using our bodies for profit and destruction. When folks stood up and fought for their/our right to vote in the 50's and 60's, they killed them, beat them, stomped on them and silenced them. Now that we supposedly have the right to vote, they just returned to their old template to steal our votes again through all the channels of information  they run, own and control.    

And for people asking why can't the demicans stand up to the republicrats - because they are the same people. The Demicans are neo-liberal, quietly racist, classist, rich people and the Republicrats are transparently racist, classist rich people.

This is like a pekinese dog fighting a Chihuahua - they are different. but both small and nervous.( NOTE: no disrespect to the dogs who are much better than these robo-humans)

From demican devil-opers and real estate snakes who poured thousands of dollars into fighintg the humble resistance to heavy gentriFUKation in San Francisco known as prop G- so they could continue spekkkulating and gentriFUKing us out of everywhere to the Republicrats in Oregon and Oklahoma who used the hate of us poor families on food stamps to pit us against other poor people who probably qualify for food stamps to win their republicrat offices. 

There are tiny glimmers of poltrickster infiltrations run on small city to city fights like the Green party sweeping Richmond, which according to community organizer Andres Soto, is because of  middle-class Wite people who are conscious voting.

And the anit-fracking win in Denton, Texas which was rooted also in middle-class wite people who are conscious voting( already being heavily fought in the kkkourts before its even official)

But in Oakland we might be left with a gentrifier for Mayor (Libby Schaaf) which is nothing less than frightening for all of us.

So how much middle of the road demican-ness will it take for people to completely give up on the poltrickster system or truly get involved in the fight? Many of us revolutionaries in CalifAztlan are still mourning the loss of Luis Rodriguez in the Gubenatorial race.  I hope this horrible wite supremacist election wakes sum folks up to whats really going on and the necessity of our inclusion, even if only on the local level, in the push back and resistance of this system theft, voter theft and voter gentriFUKation across amerikkka.