By Dianne Anderson

Election jitters for 2024 are already creeping in, but harnessing enough energy to be a part of the solution instead of the problem requires at least one critical component.

Youth participation is at the top of Chache Wright’s list. He has been out connecting at high schools and colleges in the community on some of the local issues.

“Overall, it’s making efforts to create pathways for young people to realize opportunities for doing some good work and making an impact, but also for inactive people in the community,” said Wright, president of the San Bernardino Branch NAACP.

For the year ahead, he wants to shift the organization from a reactive mode of poring over complaints to driving more initiatives to help streamline community access. He envisions a clearinghouse of information and resources they may not know exist, that could help resolve some complaints faster.

“We don’t do everything [at NAACP], but we are connected with a lot of people that pretty much do everything,” he said. “There are entities out here that do everything that people need. Just finding them and connecting the dots, that’s the effort that I want to move forward.”

Dealing with the local hate incident at an October city council meeting is another goal. Wright called for an investigation into the racist barrage against Amy Malone as she spoke at the City Council podium.

He demanded accountability from the city’s leadership, saying a half-hearted apology was not enough. He demands a full investigation into who was responsible for technical support that allowed the Zoom rant to continue, and how to prevent it from happening in the future.

Wright said Stop Black Hate is not a slogan just for Black people, but hate left unaddressed impacts everyone.

Coming up, he wants the younger demographic informed, ready on the vote, and prepared for college. The organization is also pushing for more volunteerism.

Since COVID, a pullback of in-person meetings has happened with many nonprofits. This year, he wants to implement more hybrid meetings for both in-person and online to grow participation.

As always, discrimination complaints are a focal point of the organization’s legal redress program, and most of the community concerns they receive are connected to law enforcement.

For the city of San Bernardino, he has brought some cases to Chief Darren Goodman, but most complaints span several areas of San Bernardino County, not specifically the San Bernardino Police Department. They also cover the Sheriff’s Department, Rialto PD, among several other areas.

Even so, he sees potential for positive relationships with law enforcement and better outcomes. He said the cases and complaints in the Inland Empire may not be intentionally racially biased.

“But it’s an ongoing narrative of us versus them,” he said. “It’s perpetuated on both sides. As long as it’s complicit behavior, they’re going to see [that way] and we’re never going to get that resolution.”

Not long ago, one family contacted the organization because they felt targeted when a family member was arrested. The house the suspect was supposedly living in was raided by the Sheriff’s Department.

The young man ran through the house where officers thought that he discarded a weapon. During the commotion, the family arrived, but they were not made aware of the details of why things were happening.

After the arrest, the family had not heard from their relative or the status of the case. Anything could have happened. Wright said the Sheriff’s Department said they were looking into it.

“All they [the family] knew is the police were in the house. They came home when the young man was being arrested, and they hadn’t heard anything about their family member for two to three days,” he said. “That’s the state of panic they were in.”

The next push for the organization is with the elections, a significant time locally, and nationwide.

“We partner with organizations like COPE, and League of Women Voters, and we have a new BAPAC (Black American Political Association of California). We are re-establishing it,” he said.

On the national level, the organization continues to promote social justice issues, and initiate lawsuits.

The NAACP North Carolina State Conference, Common Cause and residents are suing in federal court against Republican redrawn voting boundaries with illegal gerrymandering to dilute voting power for Black voters there.

“Ahead of the 2024 Elections, NAACP is working tirelessly to ensure that every American has the opportunity to cast an effective ballot. These discriminatory maps are a clear attack on those efforts,” said Dominik Whitehead, Vice President of Campaigns at NAACP. “We are proud to stand alongside our North Carolina State Conference and fellow advocates as we fight back against any attempt to silence Black voices. This is just the beginning.”

The National NAACP is also challenging the Florida Department of Children to address a racist incident at Osceola, Florida, where a 2-year-old Black student was reportedly handcuffed and fingerprinted by a White peer during a Rosa Parks role-play.

Recently, the organization commended the Biden-Harris Administration efforts to ensure clean, safe drinking water for all. The proposed Environmental Protection Agency Lead Copper in Drinking Water Rule includes replacing lead pipe infrastructure nationwide over the next ten years.

“It is our hope that the administration will continue to expand these crucial, life-saving initiatives with targeted, community-based programs that center those who stand to be most impacted, especially Black Americans. The NAACP will not stop fighting until we make clean water a reality for everybody,” said Abre’ Conner, NAACP Director of Environmental and Climate Justice.

For the local San Bernardino NAACP

https://sanbernardinonaacp.org

For recent information and lawsuits filed by the National NAACP, see https://naacp.org/issues/advocacy-litigation