100th Anniversary of Black History Month
The first celebration of the accomplishments Black Americans was in February 1926. That year, it was celebrated as Black History Week. February 1976 this celebration was expanded to a month or 28 days.
The founder of Black History Week/Month was Dr. Carter G. Woodson. He chose February because it included the birthday celebrations of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.
An ignorant and racist President, Donald J. Trump, and his related MAGA movement would love to get rid of celebrating Black History Month. By implication, he would also like to cancel historic ethnic federal celebrations of Hispanic, Asian and Indigenous cultures, as well as sex and gender people’s month celebrations.
Vote Blue in November 2026 and in November 2028 so we can vote out racist, sexist and xenophobic MAGA Trumpism and save or reinstate these federal celebrations of the ethnic, cultural, sexual and gender diversity of America.
Homer Gee Greene Jr.
Fresno
Re “Is Zohran Mamdani an African American?”
Your essay has offered, at its core, a grounded ontological claim of being a human beyond political exclusivity.
Human identity is multilayered, neither reducible to phenotype nor exclusively shaped by historical traumas—clichés that have informed and continue to shape communities. You mediate a shift from ethnocentric bias to shared civic responsibility as a hallmark of identity.
Racialized identity obscures more than it reveals and imposes misrecognition on the cultural constructions through which civic nationalism is negotiated.
Understood this way, your argument unmasks the tenacious misperception in U.S. public discourse between race as a social construct and identity as an ontological condition.
And, if race is a social construct, then it cannot at the same time constitute a metaphysical conditionality of who can claim African Americanness as an identity. To insist otherwise becomes a mobilization of biologism often masquerading as racialist essentialism.
Your position is in tandem with African philosophical traditions where identity is understood as multilayered and ontologically inclusive. Thus, Zohran Mamdani can claim, without any contradiction, to be African, African American, Asian American, Muslim American—precisely because identity is not a zero-sum possession but cumulative of traditions, convergence of histories and confluence of cultures!
It is within this historical contour, that I too, thereafter, claim my identity as African American!
Michael Onyebuchi Eze
Sanger
Getting Real in Gubernatorial Race
What makes an ideal elected official? A good grasp of policy. The ability to lead. Meeting with and listening to their constituents. Staying true to their principles. Integrity. Accountability. Getting things done.
That pretty much defines Betty Yee, former state controller and current candidate for governor. Yes, it’s a crowded gubernatorial field but when you look at the track record of each candidate, one clearly stands out.
Betty Yee is a leader we can count on to make our state better.
Several years ago, I helped coordinate an event in the city of San Joaquin, one of the smallest incorporated communities in California. There was no media present, and the residents are among the poorest in the state.
We asked Betty Yee to attend the event and she did. She understood that the community’s concerns were real and largely ignored by typical politicians. She listened and learned. She not only won the respect of the community but also returned to Sacramento with a to-do list.
Betty Yee has developed networks throughout the state to educate her on the challenges of their respective communities and inform her policymaking. She’s the kind of leader California needs, especially in the current difficult environment.
Michael D. Evans
San Francisco
Excellent response to my essay. I enjoyed reading it.