[Black Star Editorial]
The Black Star News believes candidates Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Chivona Newsome, Adem Bunkeddeko and Jamaal Bowman will all fight in Congress for the change Black and Brown New Yorkers need.
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The Black Star News endorses Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bronx schoolteacher Jamaal Bowman for Congress.
The Black Star News has closely followed several Congressional races and we are endorsing a number of candidates. Here are the candidates we are endorsing: In the 14th Congressional District we endorse Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. In the 15th Congressional District, we endorse Chivona Newsome. In the 9th Congressional District, we endorse Adem Bunkeddeko. And in the 16th Congressional District, we endorse Jamaal Bowman.
We believe these candidates best represent the hopes and aspirations of voters during this extraordinary time in the nation’s history when the country is poised for historic transformation as we deal with the COVID-19 onslaught, an openly-racist president, and a series of high-profile police murders of unarmed African descendants that have sparked historic uprisings.
America, Post-COVID-19, and Post-George Floyd will, and must, never be the same. The time demands real concrete change.
Black and Brown Americans, including those in New York City, are among those most vocally crying out for change. For generations, our people have faced debilitating disparities in many areas including in: business, criminal justice, education, employment, healthcare and housing.
If all that wasn’t bad enough, in 2020 the double pandemic of COVID-19 and racist policing has torn the scab off the ugly underbelly of America revealing the injurious interplay between many of the aforementioned disparities which white America has usually denied and ignored.
COVID-19 has disproportionately killed Black Americans–and exposed our sick care system, during this pandemic, as woefully inadequate. Our nation’s money-making health business system does not follow the Hippocratic Oath. It is biased in favor of the rich and against the poor, especially Blacks. This egregious atrocity is one of the outrages Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has valiantly fought against. The time has come to address the class and racial inequality in healthcare.
Most politicians give empty lip service to the memory of Dr. King. We have some Democrats telling us a single-payer healthcare system is too expensive. But Dr. King once said, “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.”
In Black America, we are largely ill-equipped to take care of the health of our people. Black people in America are vulnerable to a host of healthcare issues including: Asthma, Cancer, Depression, Diabetes, Heart Disease, Hepatitis C, High Blood Pressure, Infant Mortality, Obesity, Sickle Cell Anemia, and Stroke.
Black America has too few clinics and hospitals. We have too few doctors, nurses, and health professionals serving our communities. The COVID-19 pandemic has made it clear these harrowing realities must be rectified. Bold leadership is needed to fight for these vitally essential necessities in Congress.
Recently, we’ve seen how American racism, especially as practiced by police departments, affects the physical health of Blacks.
The horrible murder of George Floyd and Rayshard Brooks, following the murders of Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, has made it clear American policing needs radical restructuring, not piecemeal appeasement reforms. The police must be held accountable to the law if citizens–especially, African-Americans–are to have respect for the law. The murders of Blacks by police must be punished and prosecuted, not excused and protected by laws such as “qualified immunity.” Bloated policing budgets must be downsized to provide funding for other much needed community services. The groundswell of people-powered protests we’ve seen all across America attest to this.
If 2020 is teaching us something, it is this: the time for deep systemic change, in all facets of America life, is now.
The Black Star News believes candidates Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Chivona Newsome, Adem Bunkeddeko and Jamaal Bowman will all fight in Congress for the change Black and Brown New Yorkers need.
