BEYOND BLACK
Racial justice advocates look to push the envelope,
BY XIMENA DEL CERRO
As Brooklyn’s Black community
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Police Blotter ..........................8
Charter Schools ................... 13
Black History ......................... 19
Opinion ...................................30
HOW TO REACH US
COURIER LIFE, F 2 EBRUARY 18-24, 2022
faces different challenges
and reaches new
milestones, their concerns
and needs change. As a new
Black History Month begins,
some experts say this
year’s agenda should not
only include remembrance
of the celebration’s origins
and isolated historical facts,
but also the root and context
of current issues.
Last year, Black History
Month included the celebration
of Kamala Harrys being
appointed as the first Black
female vice president and
Reverend Raphael Warnock
as Georgia’s first Black Senator.
It also shined a light on
the disproportionate number
of deaths and job losses
among Black Americans
from COVID-19.
This Black History
Month, the inclusion of
Critical Race Theory and
broader Black history in
school’s curriculums, pushing
back on restrictive voting
legislations and closing
the wealth gap are priorities
for advocates and community
leaders.
Awareness of the history
of Black people in the
United States is, to this day,
a contentious subject even
in states with a large Black
population like New York.
Social disparities that Black
communities suffer from are
rooted in history and awareness
is considered crucial by
many to achieve racial justice.
“In New York State alone,
we’ve been trying to pass the
Black history curriculum
bill for the past six to seven
years and it seems to be the
only bill that they’re so adamant
in not getting out of the
Education Committee,” said
A painting of George Floyd is held up during a celebration of former Minneapolis police offi cer Derek Chauvin’s
conviction. File photo by Lloyd Mitchell
Anthony Beckford, president
of Black Lives Matter
Brooklyn.
An online petition
launched three years ago by
Beckford calls on the State
Senate and the State Assembly
to pass the bill. To date,
the petition has garnered
more than 125,000 signatures.
“Schools are required to
go over Rosa Parks, Martin
Luther King and a couple
of other biographies, but we
need our children to understand
what is going on today,”
he said. “They need
to understand not only the
truth and ugliness of racism
and slavery, but also that
there have been Black scientists,
navigators, kings and
queens and learn from very
positive representations of
them.”
Black Lives Matter
Brooklyn and other organizations
will hold a forum
on Feb. 21 with corporations
such as Target, Walmart
and Google to discuss these
companies’ promises from
2020, when protests in the
wake of the police killing of
George Floyd were at a high,
on Black employees’ equity
improvement, guarantee livable
wages and cutting bias
hiring practices.
“There is no getting
tired,” said Beckford. “We’re
gonna keep addressing the
issues and we’re gonna keep
on putting people who truly
represent us in office.”
Last year, 19 states passed
34 laws restricting access
to voting and more than
440 bills of the same nature
were introduced in 49 states.
More than 100 will carry
over from 2021 — and even
more have been pre-filed for
the 2022 legislative session
in different states.
“This month, we need to
address that laws resulting
in voter suppression are tied
together with systematic
racism,” said Courtney Bennett,
executive director of
One Hundred Black Men of
New York, an organization
that focuses on mentoring,
wealth-building strategies
and awareness of health issues
affecting the Black community.
“These laws need to
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