Committee For Racial Justice will have a workshop at 6:30 p.m., Sunday night the 5th of February which will focus on the work of the CA state Reparations Task Force which will be reporting out its recommendations in 2023. Two members of that task force will be with us to give us updates on their progress. This focus will also build on the ideas generated at last month’s Jan. 8th workshop on the Santa Monica Black Apology discussion about generating concrete ways to bring restitutions that help repair the damage done by the legacies of slavery and systemic racism that have created the racial disparities we grapple with in the present.
Our resource folks on the 5th, both appointed to the CA Reparations Task Force by Governor Newsom, are Dr. Cheryl Grills and attorney Donald Tamaki.
Dr. Cheryl Tawede Grills, a Clinical Psychologist with a current emphasis in Community Psychology, has been on the faculty of Loyola Marymount University (LMU) for the past 36 years. She is a national Past President of The Association of Black Psychologists (ABPsi) and serves as one of the lead trainers in the Community Healing Network/ABPsi partnership on the Emotional Emancipation Circles Initiative to address racial trauma and stress experienced by people of African ancestry. Dr. Grills also serves as a member of the National African American Reparations Commission (NAARC).
Donald K. Tamaki is the co-founder of StopRepeatingHistory.Org, a campaign focused on drawing parallels between the round-up of Japanese Americans during World War II and the targeting of minority groups based on race or religion. A major aspect of the campaign is the intersectionality of the Japanese American Redress Movement and that of African American Reparations, with an emphasis on creating solidarity and promoting public awareness on the importance of advancing reparations for African Americans. Tamaki has been Senior Counsel at Minami Tamaki LLP since 2020 and is a Member of the Bar Association of San Francisco and the Asian American Bar Association of the Bay Area. He received the State Bar of California Loren Miller Award in 1987 and the American Bar Association’s Spirit of Excellence Award in 2020.
Everyone is welcome to the Feb. 5th workshop. It will take place at 6:30 p.m. in the community meeting room of the Thelma Terry Building at Virginia Avenue Park. As is custom, they will have food at 6 p.m. (potlucks will be postponed until the covid/flu season is over) and the program will start at 6:30 p.m. For those unable to join us in person, register with the following link in order to be sent the zoom link to share with us virtually that evening:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0qcuqspz4sGtRd1sw7MskrhukDoYBeGfCJ
This is part of an ongoing monthly workshop series sponsored by the Committee For Racial Justice. Come join in this important discussion and meet with us in person again, if you are able.
Email by 5 p.m. on Thursday 2/2 at committee4racialjustice@gmail.com if you need child care.
Submitted by Joanne Berlin
