Years
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Vol. 66 No. 24 | Thursday, June 11, 2026
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Serving San Diego County’s African & African American Communities 66 Years
POLITICAL PLAYBACK:
California Capitol News You Might Have Missed
PHOTO: Top California State Capitol in Sacramento, © Radomianin / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0
By Bo Tefu
CALIFORNIA BLACK MEDIA
UCLA Report Exposes Deepening Economic Instability for Black Californians Black Californians saw a sharp rise in unemployment and worsening job stability between 2024 and 2025, according to a May 2026 report from the UCLA Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies’ Black Policy Project. The report links the shift to federal funding rollbacks, public sector job losses, reduced diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, and a broader economic slowdown. Using Current Population Survey data, the analysis found Black unemployment increased from 5.6% in 2024 to 7.5% in 2025. That marked the largest one-year increase among racial and ethnic groups in California. That downturn left Black workers facing double the unemployment rate of White Californians by the end of the reporting period. The report shows the impact was not evenly dis-
tributed. Black women experienced a steep rise in unemployment, from 3.5% to 7.1%. Collegeeducated Black women saw one of the most dramatic increases, with unemployment rising from 2.7% to 8.5%. Black men also remained under pressure, with unemployment holding at elevated levels, including 15.9% among those without a high school diploma. Overall employment levels changed only slightly, but the report said those numbers masked deeper shifts in job quality. Black women’s employment rate fell by about 6 percentage points, while Black men’s employment rose by about 5 percentage points, driven in part by increased part-time work rather than stable fulltime positions with benefits. A key concern in the report is the rise in involuntary part-time work. Among Black Californians, it increased from 39% to 49%, the largest jump of any group. College-educated Black men saw particularly sharp growth in involuntary part-time employment, rising by nearly 30 percentage points. See POLITICAL PLAYBACK page 2
“Whites Only” Signs Were Haunting Reminders of America’s Racism By Aaron Morrison
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS “No dogs, no Negros, no Mexicans.” “Colored served in rear.” “For whites only.” It’s the type of signage that hung from the doors and windows of establishments across much of the American South for many years. The words, like screaming headlines from Page One of a broadsheet newspaper, were the most visible, daily reminder of the subordinate status of Black people who lived life alongside and yet separate from people who, regardless of class, were considered white. After the Civil War, and upon the collapse of Reconstruction, the Jim Crow system of public etiquette and laws regulated the free movement of both Black and white people for generations until the civil rights movement began chipping away at legalized racial discrimination. The Jim Crow system was undergirded by beliefs that formerly enslaved Black people and their descendants were inferior to white people in fundamental ways, including intelligence,
14 Outstanding Students were recognized at the third annual Johnnie Lee Gibson Scholarship Giveaway. PHOTO: Darrel Wheeler
PHOTO: AP
Spatial segregation first was culturally accepted, then enforced violently or through threat of re-enslavement via incarceration. After the 1896 Supreme Court decision Plessy v. Ferguson established the “separate but equal” doctrine, Jim Crow segregation signs were more statutory than strongly worded warnings. Ritualized humiliation became constitutional subjugation. Railway cars, buses, water fountains, restrooms, hotels, lunch counters and swimming pools were among a long list of the public facilities segregated by signage. Black people were forced to use substandard facilities. Schools, churches and cemeteries had long been racially divided. By design, it kept many Black men away from white women and stripped Black people of their dignity, sense of citizenship and social and political belonging.
SEE PAGES 6-7
CHURCH OF GOD IN CHRIST TO ADVANCE FINANCIAL EDUCATION NATIONWIDE
Mason Temple, Church of God in Christ, Memphis, USA, PHOTO: Wikimedia Commons
By Church Of God In Christ The Church Of God In Christ, Inc. (COGIC), the largest Pentecostal denomination in the United States, today announced a multi-year partnership with Thrivent, a Fortune 500 financial services company that puts generosity at the heart of saving and investing. Building on years of collaboration, the new partnership brings together Thrivent’s purpose‑based advice and generosity with COGIC’s national church network. Through this partnership, Thrivent will provide a virtual, faith-based financial education curriculum to COGIC members and provide charitable giving support, including matched giving and a future endowment, to strengthen stewardship across the denomination.
morality and behavior. Allowing white and Black people to coexist as equals, the system’s supporters believed, might encourage interracial sexual relations and spur the rise of an abominable race that would destroy the racial purity of the nation’s superior white populace.
See AMERICA'S RACISM page 2
NEVER LEAVE ONE BEHIND AWARDS STUDENTS WITH THE JOHNNIE LEE GIBSON SCHOLARSHIP
“At the Church Of God In Christ, we believe spiritual, physical and financial wholeness is the inheritance of every believer,” said Presiding Bishop J. Drew Sheard, Church Of God In Christ. “Financial education and economic empowerment have been missing chapters in the story of too many of our families and congregations, so this partnership is a decisive and meaningful step toward changing that narrative. Alongside Thrivent, we will equip our 12,000-plus churches and our adherents with the knowledge, tools, and resources to make informed financial decisions today and for generations to come.” See FINANCIAL EDUCATION page 2
Waiting Lists for Child Care Assistance Nearly Doubled By National Women’s Law Center The National Women’s Law Center released its annual State Child Care Assistance Policies report, finding that the number of children placed on waiting lists for federally funded child care assistance nearly doubled between 2024 and 2025 — and that number has only continued to grow. The report serves as a key resource for state lawmakers, advocates, and policymakers by tracking state child care assis-
PHOTO: Freepik
tance policies and identifying where states are strengthening support for families and early educators — or falling behind.
author of the report. “Since the See CHILD CARE page 2
“This deeply troubling increase in the number of children on child care waiting lists is the result of a failure to invest in this crucial sector,” said Karen Schulman, senior director of state child care policy and
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