btaylor's blog

Dear League Supporters:

Over the past few weeks, I have been involved in one of the most disturbing University of California incidents in recent memory, as the University of California San Diego’s African American students have been subjected to a very disturbing series of incidents.

It started with the “Compton Barbeque” a few weeks ago - an event which openly mocked Black History month, and made the African American students on campus feel persecuted and vulnerable. That was followed by a series of incidents, including the hanging of a noose and later a KKK hood in public spaces, and the open defiance of Caucasian students (who voiced their support for their free speech rights to humiliate African Americans) via campus television and publications.

The Los Angeles Urban League has responded to these incidents swiftly, and supported the growing coalition of Social and Civil Rights Organizations that have united with the students to find solutions. As many of you know, one of the underlying issues for such campus racial strife is the exceptionally low number of African American students on the campus (African Americans only represent about 1.5% of the student body at UCSD). Chris Strudwick-Turner (our Marketing VP) and I worked with community leaders on a similar issue at UCLA over the past few years. The ultimate result was a more than doubling of African American students at UCLA. We intend to bring the same approaches to this problem.

This trip continues to establish new 21st Century relationships. Today we met with leaders from China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Commerce. We also met with the Ambassador who covers several African Countries, including Ghana. It was a fascinating day. With the Ambassador, I asked him to consider inviting members of the Delegation back when they next host the heads of state from Africa. They conduct this conference every 3 years (most recently in 2009). It last happened in 2006 just before the original China delegation from the LA Urban League arrived. Notably, our Los Angeles Urban League delegation was the first of its kind - a high level delegation of African Americans, and the precursor to this current trip. We were convinced then, as now, that some kind of three-way relationship could be enormously powerful.

Made it to Shanghai - a city with smog that makes LA look clear. It's Saturday afternoon here (still Friday evening back in LA) We're on the move to Beijing in an hour - a two hour flight. There we will have an evening to recover before the full delegation arrives on Sunday night.

Dear Community Stakeholder:

California is undergoing a critically important process of Redistricting. The process will ultimately be driven by a powerful group of Commissioners to be chosen from a qualified pool. You can be part of the process and determine who will be the Commissioners.

The deadline for Commissioner applications - February 12, 2010 - is rapidly approaching. At this point there are very few African Americans and other minorities applying to participate in the process. This must change for communities of color to have a viable voice in the future of California politics.

This opinion editorial was published in the November 16, 2009 edition of the Los Angeles Business Journal.

With the state and our local areas in virtual economic free fall, the 2010 census is perhaps the single most important population count in the history of California. There is almost nothing that will ensure our continued decline or alternatively provide the resources to help build a prosperous future than the census.

In Los Angeles and across the state, community organizers are mobilizing and strategizing the outreach to various constituencies in an attempt to avoid a catastrophic undercount. But at a time when census resources are needed more than ever, California has precipitously reduced funding for the outreach.

The state has cut the outreach funding from $26 million in the 2000 census to a mere $2.5 million for 2010 – a 90 percent reduction. How can California be so shortsighted as to virtually eliminate funding now? Equally important, considering the significance of the count, why is the public debate on the subject so muted? As bad as the reduction decision is, the lack of any real outcry – from elected officials and the public – may be even more disconcerting.

This week I participated as a panelist in Los Angeles for CNN's hosted preview of “Black in America 2” followed by a community discussion of the program and issues related to race. With an audience of more than 400 at the California African American Museum, one of the most provocative questions raised was –"is racism still an issue in America today?" Ironically, the CNN event coincided with the news release that Cambridge, Mass. police officers had arrested Harvard University professor Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., one of America’s most prominent Black scholars and one of our leading intellectual minds, Black or white. Gates, taken into custody at his home, was not held for breaking and entering, as initially reported. He was charged with disorderly conduct for speaking his mind after producing his bona fides to dispel the police contention that he was a felonious criminal. Gates, true to his style, apparently let the officers know they had no right to harass him in his residence. Clearly, racism in America is not dead. It is alive and well. Disturbingly however, in our politically correct society it has morphed and gone underground; manifesting itself in policies and practices that systematically exclude, without overtly pointing to race. This renders discrimination far more difficult to identify and combat in the 21st Century.

The Los Angeles Urban League extends its deepest condolences to the Jackson family at this time of sorrow and loss. Michael Jackson's timeless legacy in the entertainment industry will endure as an intergenerational tribute to his talent and genius.

Update (6/18/09): The LA Sentinel cites the Los Angeles Urban League's support of Judge Sonia Sotomayor.

The Los Angeles Urban League applauds President Obama for the historic nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to be the next Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

Judge Sotomayor has demonstrated excellence and distinction as a trial attorney and she has compiled an extensive record of judicial expertise. Judge Sotomayor possesses the real-life experience that President Obama has determined will be critical to the new Associate Justice, who will be called upon to apply the law in a manner reflective of everyday lives and circumstances.

I am quite literally in shock about the sudden and tragic loss of LAPD’s Deputy Chief Kenny Garner. Kenny was one of the most thoughtful and capable men in this city. He was a beacon of light and hope for so many of us who admired him on both a personal and professional level. Los Angeles has many prominent people, but very few real community heroes. Kenny was one of our city’s greatest heroes.

Originally featured in the Los Angeles Sentinel on November 16, 2008.

With the enormous bailouts that the federal government provided over the past several months to myriad sectors of our economy, here's a new twist: How about some relief for the nation's not for profit and social service sector? Now, perhaps the idea sounds spurious or even facetious at first, that is until we realize that as our economy has increasingly failed the middle and lower class over the past two decades it is the nation's social sector that has essentially served as the "safety net" for our country's most disenfranchised people and communities. This sector has been servicing millions of our country's neediest people for decades. Yet today, as a result of our nation's economy, more and more of our nation's most prominent social, civil and community organizations are in serious financial trouble. And as the economy continues to contract more rapidly, far too many of our most valuable and venerable not for profits--organizations that tirelessly service America's most disenfranchised--will likely fold under the pressure.