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Years
Vol. 65 No. 23 | Thursday, June 5, 2025
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Serving San Diego County’s African & African American Communities 65 Years
POLL: ONLY 38% INSIDE THIS WEEK'S ISSUE: OF AMERICANS
SUPPORT REPARATIONS FOR BLACK AMERICANS
By Edward Henderson CALIFORNIA BLACK MEDIA
A new poll shows that most Americans do not support paying reparations to Black descendants of enslaved people in America.
CONGRATULATIONS, MORSE HIGH GRADUATES! SEE PAGE 6
By Macy Meinhardt V&V STAFF WRITER, CA LOCAL NEWS FELLOW For the first time in five years, reports show a substantial decline in homelessness across San Diego County, resulting in a cumulative drop of 7%. The City of San Diego saw the largest drop in homelessness by 13.5% last year.
According to YouGov, the poll was “professionally done” and is detailed and multifaceted.
Numbers come from the most recent Point in Time Count (PIT), which was held in January by the Regional Task Force on Homelessness. The PIT count is an annual event where thousands of volunteers fan out across the region to physically count and survey homeless individuals. The data collected helps provide a snapshot of the crisis to leaders and policymakers. See HOMELESS page 2
LOCALS CONDEMN ‘TRAUMATIC’ ICE RAID AT POPULAR SAN DIEGO EATERY
YouGov’s statement also says that the poll is timely because 2025 “marks 80 years since Japanese Americans were released from the prison camps in 1945” following the end of WWII.
KUUMBA FEST 2025 SEE PAGE 6
REV. JAMAL BRYANT: TARGET IS CANCELED.
DOLLAR GENERAL’S NEXT By Rev. Dorothy S. Boulware WORD IN BLACK
On the grounds of local Target stores from Georgia to California, hundreds of people knelt in prayer on May 25, the fifth anniversary of George Floyd’s murder. For 9 minutes and 29 seconds — the exact length of time former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck — faith leaders across the nation marked a spiritual and economic line in the sand. Indeed, these prayer vigils were declarations that the economically exploitative relationship in which the Black community spent an average of $12 million a day in Target stores is over. “Who stood with us 10 toes down on Sunday, outside of Target in prayer, asking God to shift some things and remove some things and bring down whatever is an obstacle to our progress and to our assignment in the earth?” Rev. Dr. Jamal Harrison-Bryant asked in a video clip posted on Instagram.
The Rev. Jamal Bryant, who spearheaded the “Target fast” in the wake of the corporation’s retreat from equal opportunity commitments, is now turning his sights on Dollar General. PHOTO: Courtesy of Word in Black
14% DROP IN HOMELESS A boy plays as the sun sets over donated tents for homeless families lined up on a Balboa Park parking lot in a city-sanctioned encampment. PHOTO: Gregory Bull/AP (2017)
However, the same survey reveals that much higher percentages of respondents support reparations for Japanese Americans and Native Americans.
YouGov is releasing the poll’s results as members of the California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC) continue to urge their colleagues to support the 16 bills in the caucus’s “Road to Repair” reparations policy package. The bills, released at the beginning of this year, include legislation aimed at establishing a framework for paying reparations to the descendants of enslaved Black people, as well as other proposals that would improve equity and access to jobs, education, health care and more for Black Californians. See POLL page 2
SAN DIEGO REPORTS APPROXIMATE
And then, Bryant, senior pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Georgia, announced that the boycott of Target, which began on Ash Wednesday as a modern-day fast during Lent, has now escalated into a full cancellation of the big-box retailer. See BRYANT page 2
Activists and labor officials, a part of the San Diego & Imperial Counties Labor Council, stand outside the Edward J. Schwartz Federal Building in Downtown San Diego on June 3 to protest against unjust federal immigration raids. PHOTO: Macy Meinhardt/ Voice & Viewpoint Staff
By Macy Meinhardt V&V STAFF WRITER, CA LOCAL NEWS FELLOW Local elected officials, labor leaders, and activists are speaking out in condemnation of a surprise raid carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on May 30 at a popular South Park restaurant during dinner service. The raid took place at Buona Forchetta restaurant around 5 P.M. Witnesses described a chaotic scene as 20 to 25 armed agents surrounded the building, handcuffed staff, and questioned workers for over an hour. Social media videos of the raid depict dozens of surrounding neighbors coming out in protest against the ICE agents, as what appeared to be grenade smoke bombs went off in the street. “The way it unfolded was nothing short of traumatic. We are devastated and heartbroken,” said the restaurant owner, Matteo Catteneo in a social media post on June 1. All locations of the restaurant were reported to be closed the following Monday and Tuesday after the incident.
Many San Diego officials have since put out statements regarding the incident. “Federal actions like these are billed as public safety measures, but it had the complete opposite effect. What we saw undermines trust and creates fear in our community,” said Mayor Todd Gloria in a social media post. Meanwhile, members of the San Diego City Council, including District 9 Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera, are calling the raid a display of “terrorism”. “What we saw on Friday night was terrorism. It was an attempt to illicit fear and violence and intimidate us all into submission and compliance,” said Elo-Rivera during a June 3 press conference. Labor leaders making up the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council have also come out to denounce the attack on immigrant workers. See RAID page 2
ICE officials reportedly had a warrant for 19 individuals who were employed at the restaurant and were alleged to be using falsified green cards. Four employees have been taken into custody at the Otay Mesa Detention Facility.
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