Posts Tagged: color

Opinion

A crucial effort to expand home internet access

Students accessing broadband from a computer lab. (Photo: J. Lekavicius, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: Students all know the pains – dropped Zoom calls, spotty reception and failed downloads. COVID-19 has changed college campuses forever, expanding the classroom to wherever we can connect to the internet. While the transition has opened more access for students, it also  leaves behind many, including the 3.5 million Californians who do not have internet access at home.

Opinion

California’s young people of color and Proposition 15

Photo: Power California

OPINION: Everywhere in California, young people are fighting for our lives, our families and our communities. We know it is up to us to fight for our future. We are asking you to fight for us, too. We are young.  We are Black, brown, Indigenous, Asian and Pacific Islander Americans youth and youth of color from the Central Valley, Central Coast, Southern California, Inland Valley, Bay Area,  — every corner of the state.

Opinion

Equal access to maternal, prenatal care crucial for mothers

A doctor moves an ultrasound transducer across a woman's belly. (Photo: Andrey_Popov, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, expectant mothers of color in California now face two battles at once: potential exposure to a deadly virus, and long-standing inadequate access to the best prenatal and maternal healthcare. And as the Black Lives Matter protests and national conversations around racial injustice continue to spread across California, it is more important than ever that California lawmakers address the systemic racial health disparities that plague our communities and give rise to this lack of access. 

Opinion

New administration should focus on consumer protection

An illustration depicting the law and consumer protection. (Image: create jobs 51, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, California today ranks as the 5th largest economy in the world, surpassing the United Kingdom. To flourish, great economies like California’s need consumer protections and oversight of financial markets. California has one single state agency charged with both, the Department of Business Oversight. 

Opinion

Trump admin has declared war on the environment

The deeply forested landscape in Humboldt County, where environmental protection is a critical issue. (Photo: Ethan Daniels)

OPINION: The resignation of Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt was met with a collective sigh of relief across the nation. Pruitt, one of President Donald Trump’s most loyal foot soldiers in the Trump Administration’s ongoing war on environmental quality, environmental justice, and environmental health, had overseen some of the most egregious rollbacks of environmental protections in history during his brief and troubled tenure in office.

Opinion

Paint: Time to get the lead out

Two painters in protective suits remove lead paint from an old house. (Photo: Jaime Hooper)

OPINION: Seeing no way to prevail in the courts, the Big Three filed a ballot initiative that would nullify the court judgment holding them responsible for lead paint cleanup in 10 counties, and effectively pardon them by preventing any future suits. Perhaps worst of all, the toxic paint producers’ initiative would force taxpayers to clean up the companies’ own toxic paint mess, draining nearly $4 billion dollars from our state budget.  

Opinion

CA election data: People of color at disadvantage

A Californian casts a ballot. (Photo: Vepar5 via Shutterstock)

OPINION: All the votes from the June primary elections are finally counted. We now have the second highest number of votes—more than 8.5 million—ever cast in a California statewide primary. While this is good news for our communities and for the state, we have a lot more work to do when it comes to ensuring that more Californians have a say in the political process.

Opinion

Linking young men of color to health care jobs

OPINION: Today we have a tremendous opportunity to address this crisis. Thanks to health care reform and a growing, aging population, employment in the health services sector is projected to grow far faster than California’s economy overall – 27 percent by 2020. Many of these are good jobs – positions like radiology technician and therapy assistant – that pay $35,000 or more a year without requiring a college degree. And men of color are significantly underrepresented in these fields.

Opinion

Young, black and male, Trayvon Martin faced triple threat

Trayvon Martin is a number. His family and others rightfully make the case that he was a real person, and that his death has left a serious mark on a real family and community. That’s true, but it’s time we recognize that he is also, sadly, a statistic. A statistic we too often ignore, which

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