Wearing a t-shirt, jeans, and a baseball cap that says Oakland California, Chris Pastena’s appearance looks like he could be part of any protest like the one that passed the restaurant he operates. When he tried to stop a white woman from taking a bat to the restaurant’s door during a protest on Saturday night, a crowd of people attacked him. Another group of protesters stopped the attack. They had not realized he was a co-owner of the restaurant, Tribune Tavern, or that he owned it with his wife, who is Black.

“Who brings a bat to a protest?” …

If silence is violence, the residents of Oakland have an answer for that; art. Throughout Saturday artists of all ages and ethnicities took their paint, paintbrushes and spray paint to claim boarded windows in Downtown Oakland as forms of beautiful expression.

It would appear as if certain people are more acceptable to misinformation and propaganda. That friend of yours on Facebook claiming COVID-19 came from 5G towers because they saw a YouTube video that “broke it down.” The Twitter rants against Bill Gates claiming he created the COVID-19 virus and is holding the vaccine from the public for some reason. None of these claims are based in factual research, yet conspiracy theories are often louder than the truth.

We often think that depends on what political leanings we have, our level of education and the beliefs we hold. Democrats and liberals…

When I was growing up my mom wanted to kill my spirit. She did not want me to leave her side, she wanted me to stay with her for life and take care of her. Either that or marry a rich man who would take care of us both. She made me clean the house ever since I was a child and take care of my little brother. My education was not important. My dreams were not important. My imagination needed to be squashed. My temperament needed to be silenced.

It seems as if she may have had this epiphany…

Shadows of Liberty Applied to Social Media

(Written for Social Media for Journalism Class)

Documentary “Shadows of Liberty” is like an owner’s manual guide in understanding the problems with media today. Going through a timeline of US history in journalism, it is an eye-opening experience to understand the issues we face now with media’s silent deception.

When discussing the origins of America and its ideology, founding fathers like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson are acknowledged the most. …

Originally published in Dope Era Magazine Spring 2018 print issue.

Call it fake news, biased opinion, alternative facts or straight up lies; there is a real problem in this country that most people are not paying attention too. A propaganda cycle that lies deeply embedded in our Social Media habits. It has not stopped after the 2016 election, and more elections are coming up in 2018.

While Social Media has historically been taken lightly as harmless entertainment, it is becoming more apparent with every tweet President Donald Trump posts that Social Media has also had a significantly adverse effect on…

I’ve now been to two Women’s March. The first one was in Oakland, CA and the second in San Francisco, CA. To be honest, I was not as enthusiastic about going to the second one. The first march was jam-packed in the Oakland streets, we were like sardines. The energy and vibe were intense; people were scared. They were fearful of an uncertain of the future. It was uncomfortable and awkward to glance at a stranger’s eyes let alone talk to them, many of them would just look away. We were supposed to be unified, but I only felt allied…

(Originally published in Fiterazzi.com in August 2014 before being purchased & renamed)

14 years ago I was diagnosed with Graves Disease at the age of 22 years old. My twin daughters were just 3 months old and my focus was on working hard to take care of them. I was so driven and stressed about money that when I first received the call from a nurse that I needed to go to the hospital I refused. I was at work and could not afford to take another day off. The nurse told me that I had to come in, if…