Martin Luther King, Jr. event Mon. Jan. 18 in Benicia – Letter from a Birmingham Jail

Benicia Black Lives Matter hosting live reading of King’s historic letter, followed by discussion on Monday, January 18, 1PM

Benicia Black Lives Matter – Flyer for MLK reading and discussion, January 18, 2021

ATTEND THE EVENT

ZOOM Event by Benicia Black Lives Matter
Monday, January 18, 2021 at 1 PM PST
Price: Free
Public · Anyone on or off Facebook
BBLM will be doing a live reading of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail. A community discussion will follow.
This event with be held through Zoom.
ZOOM Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89110536594
Meeting ID: 891 1053 6594
Passcode: 428570

MORE INFORMATION

Event on Facebook: facebook.com/events/408607286905979/
BBLM on Facebook: facebook.com/BeniciaBLM
BBLM Website: beniciablacklivesmatter.com

Choosing our Assembly District 14 Democratic Party delegates

YOU can help vote for a PROGRESSIVE SLATE to represent us! Details and HOW to vote…

WHAT DELEGATES DO: The Delegates we elect will vote for the officers of the California Democratic Party, as well as endorsements for legislative and statewide offices and ballot propositions.  In even numbered years the Delegates establish the party platform and weigh in each year on state resolutions.

The PDB Steering Committee recognizes that there has been a division within the Party between Progressives and Labor/corporate interests. In Solano County, the labor slate includes an offshoot of the Working Families PAC which spent nearly $300,000 in an unsuccessful attempt to defeat Steve Young in the race for Benicia Mayor.

This year, due to the Pandemic, the Democratic party is doing an all-mail ballot to elect delegates representing Assembly District 14 (Grayson).  We are urging you to go to the link [https://ademelections.com/?isCandidate=False] to request a ballot be mailed to you, and then consider supporting the Progressive slate, as listed below.

Your Steering Committee supports this group of Democratic Progressive Candidates who want to change the Democratic Party from the corporate and divisive politics of the past. The AD 14 Progressives for Change slate is asking for your vote in January 2021 to take the party into a more transparent, accountable, and inclusive future.

How to get a Party Ballot and VOTE…

Due to the pandemic, the California Democratic Party (CADEM) has implemented a vote by mail for the 2021 Assembly District 14 Elections.

  • Deadline to request a vote-by-mail ballot is Monday January 11, 2021.
  • All voters must request a vote-by-mail ballot for this election at   https://ademelections.com/?isCandidate=False
  • All ballots must be received before Wednesday, January 27, 2021.

THE PROGRESSIVE SLATE

Please remember these names and vote for these 10 PROGRESSIVE candidates, AD 14 Progressives for Change:
Thomas Bilbo https://www.facebook.com/ElectTomBilbo/
Kari Birdseye https://www.facebook.com/kari.birdseye
Ruscal Cayangyang https://www.facebook.com/ruscalcayangyang/
Brenda Crawford https://www.facebook.com/ElectBrendaC/
Susannah Delano https://www.facebook.com/SDforADEM
Matthew Finkelstein facebook.com/MatthewFinkelstein4AD14/
Susan George https://www.facebook.com/SusanGeorge4AD14/
Leilani Quesada https://www.facebook.com/electleilaniquesada/
Steve Sillen https://www.facebook.com/stevesillenad14/
Phillip (Maui) Wilson https://www.facebook.com/MauiForAD14/

AD 14 Progressives 4 Change: https://www.facebook.com/AD14Progressives4Change

Watch the video
: https://fb.watch/2sZ7qkFilC/

AND… please tell and email this information to your Democratic friends in District 14 (Benicia, Vallejo, Concord, Clayton, Martinez, Pittsburg [western portion], Pleasant Hill, Rodeo, and the northern part of Walnut Creek).

Making ‘good trouble’ in Benicia

Shakoor-Grantham starts city’s version of Black Lives Matter

Nimat Shakoor-Grantham founded the Benicia Chapter of the Black Lives Matter movement. (Chris Riley—Times-Herald)

From the Benicia Independent, originally in the Vallejo Times-Herald, by Katy St. Clair, January 13, 2021

BENICIA — “What are you doing here, shouldn’t you be in Vallejo?”

This was a question Benicia resident Nimat Shakoor-Grantham says her Black son was asked as he walked down a street in town. He had also been pulled over before and asked, again, what he was doing in Benicia, she said.

A Black woman sitting in a Benicia restaurant told Shakoor-Grantham that she was pelted with ice cubes by white males at a nearby table. The message she got was, “You don’t belong here in our space.”

As for Shakoor-Grantham, an African-American woman who has lived in Benicia since 2002, the disrespect she has seen has ranged from a man at Safeway calling her “gal” and telling her to go fetch him a cart, to threatening letters left on her doorstep — again asking, “What are you trying to do here?”

She thinks that last threat was because she founded the Benicia group of Black Lives Matter. She has had anonymous people taunting her with, “You are poking the bear, and when the bear gets poked, the bear gets mad,” or “Why are you creating trouble in Benicia?”

The “trouble” she and her BBLM colleagues are getting into is what the late Senator John Lewis would call “good trouble,” or raising awareness of inequality, bias, and prejudice among citizens in town.

“We specifically address issues with the government, city, and county,” she said. “We address issues of education and Black arts and culture. We also promote the awareness of systemic racism and bias.”

This last aspect of their work — promoting awareness of systemic racism — was highlighted by former Mayor Elizabeth Patterson on her blog “El Pat’s Forum” at the end of December.

Patterson described a council meeting where BBLM members addressed the body about a need for an equity and diversity manager, something that many cities have. The job of the manager will be to become a liaison between citizens, government and businesses to promote awareness and movement toward a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable place to live for people of color in Benicia. The hire will reach out to the school district as well as art and cultural organizations and spaces as well.

“When the recommendation was presented to council by staff and BBLM members, many council members were quick to offer ideas about what they thought BBLM needed,” wrote Patterson. “One could almost feel the insult that a white city council was telling the panel of four BBLM members what they needed.”

Shakoor-Grantham was at the meeting and agreed with this assessment, but told the Times-Herald that what struck her more was that they seemed more interested in how much it was going to cost to hire a person to do this rather than discussing the importance of having one.

“I said, these are my experiences here, what can be done about it? And I got crickets,” Shakoor-Grantham said.

Patterson agreed that discussion became money, writing “there was a lot of haggling over the cost.” She then pointed out what she described as “structural racism.”

The cost of hiring a part-time equity expert (30 hours a week) was put at $133,000, which council members said the city could not afford. However, Patterson points out, some of the same council members had recently estimated the value to the city that fees from developers bring in and they came up with $230,000.

One councilmember, she wrote, described this amount as “nothing” to the general fund, meaning in the town’s large budget they could “almost forgo” even collecting the fees.

The mayor then juxtaposed this with the proposed equity hire.

“The structural racism is clear. A council will say the city cannot afford programs that might have been beneficial to Black and Brown people, but can afford to subsidize market rate housing and businesses.”

For Shakoor-Grantham and BBLM, the mayor’s message was exactly what they have hoped to hear from government.

“I am very happy that Elizabeth had the insight, awareness, and courage to write this,” Shakoor-Grantham said. “She saw the apparent disparity and refused to remain silent as many people who shouldn’t remain silent choose to do,” she wrote in an op-ed in this paper.”

BBLM has about 30 members, she says, and everyone is committed to moving Benicia “in the right direction.” She estimates that 80 percent of the group is made up of white allies. She is quick to point out the many stereotypes that some people might have about Black Lives Matter.

“We want to work together with people, to learn and evolve together,” she said. “We aren’t trying to guilt trip white people.”

Shakoor-Grantham acknowledges that everyone, even herself, holds biases that they need to be aware of. However she says if your bias impacts the peace of another member of this community or makes them feel like they don’t belong here, it is important to address it. She feels she also has a big ally in Police Chief Erik Upson, who she says has been incredibly responsive.

“I have faith in him,” she said.

Overall, she is pleased at progress that has been made and she is looking forward to the city hiring the equity manager.

“There’s some good stuff happening, I’m really happy,” she says. “The good stuff out-shadows any of the negative.”

Equity & Justice For All