By The New Orleans Tribune In National News
News One
The Congressional Black Caucus unveiled a new bill earlier this week that its members say will make vast improvements in the lives of Black families, in particular, with significant legislative efforts to bridge the gaps specifically affecting them in the employment and criminal justice arenas.
Divided into two parts, the multi-faceted Jobs and Justice Act of 2020 makes provisions that, if passed, would “increase the upward social mobility of Black families, and help ensure equal protection under the law,” the CBC‘s ambitious new sweeping legislation says.
The first part of the bill, devoted to jobs, is broken up into five subcategories to address the nation’s most pressing needs on the employment front during a time when there is unprecedented joblessness, especially among Black people. The jobs portion of the bill addresses various aspects of employment such as workforce development, community and economic development, poverty, housing and wealth creation as well as education.
From including incentives to provide more Black girls with opportunities to pursue careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields to addressing Black-owned businesses, personal finance and Historically Black Colleges and Universities, the bill’s jobs division casts a wide net and covers the gamut when it comes to all aspects of Black employment.
The second part of the bill is also multi-tiered and concentrates on the ongoing efforts to reform the nation’s criminal justice system, “from improving the way police interact with the communities they serve to expanding access to social services for individuals who have paid their debt to society,” the legislation’s language says in part.
The “justice” division of the bill addresses criminal justice — and includes the CBC’s own Justice in Policing Act of 2020 that ambitiously aims to end police brutality, hold police accountable, improve transparency in policing and create meaningful, structural change when it comes to how law enforcement does their jobs — health equity, the coronavirus pandemic, environmental justice and voting rights.
Referencing how this year marks the 57th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the CBC quoted the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. when introducing the landmark legislation: “It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can stop him from lynching me, and I think that’s pretty important.”A research report by the ACLU research report, “The Other Epidemic: Fatal Police Shootings in the Time of COVID-19,” examines whether circumstances surrounding the public health crisis — unprecedented societal isolation combined with relaxed police department routine enforcement — has led to a change in the frequency with which the police fatally shoot people in the U.S.
Jeff Thomas
Publisher • Opinion Columnist • Licensed General Contractor • Real Estate Appraiser • New Orleans
Jeff Thomas is the publisher of Black Source Media and one of New Orleans’ most direct voices on civic affairs, economic justice, and Louisiana politics. He writes from the intersection of experience and accountability — as a licensed general contractor,a tech company founder and executive with over 30 years experience, and a businessman who has worked across the city’s civic, media, and construction ecosystems for decades.
His Sunday column covers Louisiana legislative politics, insurance discrimination, housing policy, and the forces shaping Black community life in New Orleans and across the state. Thomas writes in the tradition of Black journalists who hold power accountable without apology — building arguments from data, delivering verdicts from evidence, and speaking to Black New Orleans with the directness the moment demands.
He is also the principal of Executive Appraisers Louisiana, an MBE-certified real estate appraisal firm, and EA Inspection Services, LLC, a government inspection services company. Black Source Media is his platform for the civic conversation New Orleans has needed and too rarely had.
Selected Articles by Jeff Thomas
Black Neighborhoods Pay the Highest Insurance Rates in Louisiana. Here’s What They Don’t Want You to Know.
They Didn’t Yell the N-Word. They Went to Law School, Bided Their Time, and Rewrote the Constitution Instead.
Vappie vs. Morrell: Why Does Justice Look Different in New Orleans?
The State Has the Money. New Orleans East Just Needs Them to Use It.
The Failure of Mitch Landrieu
Publisher — Black Source Media
Jeff Thomas
Publisher • Opinion Columnist • Licensed General Contractor • Real Estate Appraiser • New Orleans
Jeff Thomas is the publisher of Black Source Media and one of New Orleans’ most direct voices on civic affairs, economic justice, and Louisiana politics. He writes from the intersection of experience and accountability — as a licensed general contractor,a tech company founder and executive with over 30 years experience, and a businessman who has worked across the city’s civic, media, and construction ecosystems for decades.
His Sunday column covers Louisiana legislative politics, insurance discrimination, housing policy, and the forces shaping Black community life in New Orleans and across the state. Thomas writes in the tradition of Black journalists who hold power accountable without apology — building arguments from data, delivering verdicts from evidence, and speaking to Black New Orleans with the directness the moment demands.
He is also the principal of Executive Appraisers Louisiana, an MBE-certified real estate appraisal firm, and EA Inspection Services, LLC, a government inspection services company. Black Source Media is his platform for the civic conversation New Orleans has needed and too rarely had.
Selected Articles by Jeff Thomas
Black Neighborhoods Pay the Highest Insurance Rates in Louisiana. Here’s What They Don’t Want You to Know.
They Didn’t Yell the N-Word. They Went to Law School, Bided Their Time, and Rewrote the Constitution Instead.
Vappie vs. Morrell: Why Does Justice Look Different in New Orleans?
The State Has the Money. New Orleans East Just Needs Them to Use It.
The Failure of Mitch Landrieu
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2020 OCTOBER 22.