By Dianne Anderson

One good thing to come out of the torrent of destruction of the past year is that Chache Wright, president of the San Bernardino branch NAACP, is seeing more volunteerism.

There are always enough social justice issues and complaints to keep people busy if they want to volunteer for the oldest civil rights organization in the nation.

“I have about five emails that I’m responding to today, they’re saying I really want to do something in the community, I have a background in such and such and this is how I’d like to impact my community,” Wright said.

Since becoming president, Wright said his primary position is that his and other local organizations are more powerful united than divided. He is looking to build relationships with all organizations that involve people of color, especially connected to racial and social injustice.

Wright said the longevity of the NAACP and the Black Lives Matter movement have a lot to offer each other. He feels the local branch can provide an anchor to access connecting resources to help fight the injustices now happening in the community.

Dealing with the economic impact of the pandemic tops the agenda. Severe job loss and small business impact require an approach for economic resiliency and a collective effort.

“Getting out of the financial slump that all of us are going to be [facing] at the top or at the bottom, we’re all taking the hit in some fashion,” he said. “We need to be forward-thinking, and innovative methods for creating possibilities for income in our community.”

For starters, he wants to see more green tech, training and resources, as better funding and hopeful new policy points toward reduction of carbon emissions.

Wright, 39, a Morehouse College alumnus, holds a degree in math, and now works IT tech support with San Bernardino County. Going forward, he would like to draw the Black community into clean fields, including solar power or Electrical Vehicles or EV terminals.

“We’re working well with a company [that’s] building and developing charging vehicles, teaching people how to maintain them, to grow them and how they can have a significant part in our community,” he said.

His last goal is “too on the nose,” he said, but closing the gap between the community and local police makes sense. It is a goal that his mentor, the past president and late John Futch, also supported.

Under the wing and tutelage of Futch, Wright said he gained a vast understanding of how to present the needs of the community to high levels of public administrators and law enforcement.

San Bernardino has one of the highest crime rates per capita, all the more reason to work toward establishing relationships, he said, especially in a climate of blue lives matter versus Black lives matter.

“It is a strong consistency of us versus them,” he said, adding that Mr. Futch always clearly laid out the needs of the community to police, and stressed the importance of keeping communication open.

“John mostly drove the point that we had to at least be in communication with them. If we’re not talking with them, we’re dead in the water in terms of helping our people with antagonistic police treatment toward the community,” he said.

Recently, the organization announced their election of the officers. Among them are: First Vice President Che Wright, Second Vice-President Joette Spencer Campbell, Third Vice President Josiah Bruny, Secretary Selam Petros, Assistant Secretary Jea Reese, Treasurer Russell Ward, Assistant Treasurer Tasha Gary and Executive Director Richard Blacksher.

He emphasized that his work with the local branch is especially energized with the support of his younger sister, Che Wright. She returned back home at about the same time, and he said they often wound up in the same circles in the same mode, looking for similar ways to give back to the community.

And it always led back to the same space at the NAACP. He said that she gave him the idea of working with green technology.

“I told her I’m probably going to be the next president, and I’m confident that we could be the dynamic duo to be the next change. She said that I was just waiting on you,” he laughs.

Wright’s connection with the local branch started as a youth, where he attended meetings since he was ten years old, continuing with his youth group while at college in Atlanta.

He believes that the organization is still viable to shed light on social injustice with the clout of numerous historic civil rights victories, and doesn’t have to be at the forefront to get things done.

But, he said it is the people and volunteers that provide the fuel. Sometimes he hears smaller organizations say they don’t have the same voice and impact of the NAACP to address bigger issues.

“I tell them we’re a name, but when it comes down to the work that needs to be done, we’ve got to do it together,” he said.

To volunteer, or join the branch, see

https://www.sanbernardinonaacp.org/membership

To volunteer, or to file a complaint, see the San Bernardino NAACP at

www.sanbernardinonaacp.org