Columns & Editorials

Betty’s legacy lives on 

Betty Reid Soskin was many things to many people during her 104 years on the planet.  She married twice, mothered four children, owned the first Black record store in Berkeley, wrote and sang freedom fighter songs, started a career at the Rosie the Riveter Homefront Shipyard Museum in Richmond that...
Fighting fire with fire

Fighting fire with fire

Tatiana Haddawy wore a crown, carried a torch, and donned a teal robe and sash emblazoned with the words, “Not For Sale,” as she walked through downtown Oakland during the national day of protest for the No...
Who gets a Head Start?

Who gets a Head Start?

When Sheena Biggers first walked into a Berkeley Head Start, she was a 19-year-old mom, looking for a safe place for her young daughter to land while Biggers worked a part-time job. She sometimes lingered during morning...
Renters left out of the housing-solution conversation

Renters left out of the housing-solution conversation

It’s easy to be convinced that the YIMBY (Yes In My Backyard) movement has the interests of rent-burdened Californians at heart while the NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) movement doesn’t. In the politicized dichotomy, it’s further implied...
New bill proposes people-powered politics

New bill proposes people-powered politics

Zahra Ahmed is an activist, a scholar and a mother in Alameda who sometimes imagines herself running for public office. But there’s one thing that always gets in her way. “I do NOT want to ask anyone for...
Oakland politics embroiled in tokenism controversy

Oakland politics embroiled in tokenism controversy

One of the most essential services that alternative weeklies like the East Bay Express provide is the ability for reflection and analysis in hindsight. This is certainly the case for Oakland staffer Leigh Hanson and a note...
Nobuko Miyamoto embodies joyful resistance

Nobuko Miyamoto embodies joyful resistance

As a woman whose earliest childhood memories include being incarcerated at a Japanese internment camp with her parents and grandparents, 85-year-old Nobuko Miyamoto has a lifetime of experience with “gaman,” or endurance. She finds it painful  to...
Oakland journalist reports threats after sharing public records

Oakland journalist reports threats after sharing public records

Kevin Jones and I have hosted the Doomloop Dispatch podcast for nearly a year now. Last week, we reached our 50th episode, with an interview with journalist Eric K. Arnold. Our episodes generally focus on being counter-narratives...
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