Black History Month 2021: “There’s a Lot Left to Be Done” by Ben Jealous | NewBlackMan (in Exile)

Black History Month 2021: “There’s a Lot Left to Be Done” by Ben Jealous | NewBlackMan (in Exile)

Black History Month 2021: “There’s a Lot Left to Be Done” by Ben Jealous

Black History Month 2021: “There’s a Lot Left to Be Done” 

by Ben Jealous | @BenJealous | special to NewBlackMan (in Exile)

 

February is Black History Month – and Black people just made a whole lot of history.

Joe Biden is our president and Donald Trump is not because Black organizers and voters decided that they would not be denied their right as American citizens to be heard at the ballot box.

 

Kamala Harris is our history-making vice president, a Black and Southeast Asian woman and the daughter of immigrants, thanks to the millions of Black people who encouraged family, friends, and neighbors to vote.

 

Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff are senators because Black people and their allies in Georgia turned out in November, and again in January, to signal a new day in the heart of the Old South.

 

All this makes me grateful that Black History Month comes in February. It encourages us to think about those who made these historic moments possible.

 

I’m thinking about the freedom fighters and voting rights activists – and the courageous ordinary people whose names don’t show up in history books, but who showed up to fight against injustice. They often faced violence and brutality that was fueled by the racist power structure’s desire to maintain power at all costs.

 

Does that sound familiar? Just a few weeks ago, we saw our democracy challenged by that same kind of poison. We watched a president incite his supporters to violence by denying the legitimacy of Black people’s votes. The rage among Trump’s followers was stoked by endless repetitions of the lie that so-called real Americans had CONTINUE READING: Black History Month 2021: “There’s a Lot Left to Be Done” by Ben Jealous | NewBlackMan (in Exile)

Pandemic Relief and the Georgia Elections by Ben Jealous | NewBlackMan (in Exile)

Pandemic Relief and the Georgia Elections by Ben Jealous | NewBlackMan (in Exile)

Pandemic Relief and the Georgia Elections by Ben Jealous

by Ben Jealous | @BenJealous | special to NewBlackMan (in Exile)

Fair warning: this isn’t a traditional Christmas-week column.

If we think of clarity as a kind of gift, though, we can be grateful that the effort to pass a much-needed COVID-19 relief bill in the waning days of this Congress makes one thing crystal clear: hurting families and small businesses will be abandoned if Republicans keep control of the U.S. Senate by winning Georgia’s January 5 runoff elections.

There is some good news. The $900 billion package includes emergency relief for renters, families, small businesses, and more. That relief, that, includes direct help to individuals, is urgently needed. It will extend some protections against evictions for another month. It will give small business owners a little more breathing space to try to survive the pandemic.

About 12 million unemployed people who were going to be cut off at the end of the year will receive $300 weekly in federal support and an extension of the unemployment assistance program until mid-March.

All this is necessary. But it is a temporary fix that falls far short of addressing the pain people are experiencing and truly setting us on the road to recovery.

Almost 12 million renters will be behind on their rent by an average of almost $6,000 at the end of this month, according to one study. The Census Bureau says that about 29 percent of Black families are behind on rent. Much of the back rent has piled up since unemployment benefits under the CARES Act—the first relief bill—expired during the summer. According to some estimates, as many as 20 million tenants—about the population of Florida—are at risk of eviction.

With a problem that huge, David Dworkin, CEO of the National Housing Conference, told MarketWatch that the bill’s $25 billion in rental assistance is just a band-aid, “a practical start for staving off the immediate threat of mass evictions across the country.”

Because the bill falls short of what is needed, some people are blaming “Congress” generally.

Let’s get real. If congressional Republicans had CONTINUE READING: Pandemic Relief and the Georgia Elections by Ben Jealous | NewBlackMan (in Exile)