The potential installation of more data centers in various parts of Prince George’s County  have been a growing issue. On July 17, nearly 50-60 residents of the Prince Georges County community came to learn about and give their opinion on the possibility of a new data center within the county.

This meeting was  held at the Prince George’s County Department of Parks and Recreation headquarters in North County. This was the first in a series of three public meetings held by the architecture firm Gensler and the Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission’s (M-NCPPC) to garner community engagement.

Room 201 at the Community Center was buzzing with excitement as student winners with their families entered the room to participate in the Fourth Annual Social Justice Student Awards Ceremony sponsored by the Prince George’s County Lynching Memorial Project (PGCLMP) and hosted by the Greenbelt Black History and Culture Committee. The excitement increased as more and more students, parents and community folks arrived and more chairs were set up.

The fight to provide Maryland citizens with a livable wage continues. On Monday, Oct. 7, members from activist organizations stood alongside Tom Dernoga (District 1), and Krystal Oriadha (District 7)  at The Wayne K. Curry building in Upper Marlboro to publicly advocate for a bill that would index the minimum wage in Prince George’s County. 

On Saturday, June 15, Umoh and nine other high school students received educational scholarships from The Prince George’s County Memorial Lynching Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to retelling the stories of lynched Black men in the county. Elected officials and some parents were present.  The event was held at Greenbelt Community Center for the ceremony. The organization awarded finalists for producing work in three categories: visual arts, essay, and creative writing.

When Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler visited his city’s protests on Wednesday night, demonstrators posed a series of questions to him. The first? Whether he supports getting rid of qualified immunity for police officers, an issue that has been a growing priority for Black Lives Matter activists who want to see it eliminated.

Odessa Jenkins, CEO of the WNFC, and Syed Gilani, CEO of Safr, said they decided to work together because both organizations have similar goals: empowering women, keeping them safe, and offering opportunities to succeed.

“Honestly, we are looking for strategic partnerships with organizations that have the DNA and a mission that aligns with ours,” said Gilani. “What the WNFC has accomplished by building a parallel to the NFL is incredible. Both organizations see this as a long-term partnership.”

Back in May, before leaving his position, Andrew Schaufele, former director of the Bureau of Revenue Estimates, prophesied that due to the pandemic low-wage employees in Maryland would be the most impacted. He was right. Low-wage workers in Prince George’s County, Maryland — a mostly African-American middle-class county with pockets of poverty — have lost thousands of jobs.

There is more to that Uber/Lyft story.

“Working for Uber and Lyft during the pandemic has disappointed them. Before they could predict their week-to-week earnings, but now they can’t due to the shutdown. Their financial situations made them unable to be participants in helping to flatten the curve. Instead, their kind of face-to-face workplaces places them in positions where they could catch the virus — and spread it to other family members.”

Do Body Cameras Bring Justice?

According to The Virginian Pilot, in an effort to absolve himself of a cultural sin, the governor said that he planned “to pursue the identities of the people in the photos using facial recognition software…”

In a 2017 study, Dr. Kristen Broady, an economist, writes that during the fourth industrial revolution African-Americans and Latinos are employed at positions where automation will replace them and/or alter their job entirely, meaning they would need to acquire different skills for a new job market.