ST EOBHCSunset 072321 - Flipbook - Page 40
2019-2020
Transition from EOBHC to Black Cultural Zone
In the summer of 2020, shelter in place orders due to COVID-19 were starting to get lifted in spite
of high infection rates experienced by “essential workers” who are predominantly Black, Brown,
and immigrant. The Black Lives Matter movement was at its peak. And the incumbent political
party in power was preparing to suppress the votes of Black people and other people of color. In
this unprecedented context full of both deep anxiety and potential transformation, the EOBHC
Transition Team was planning the migration of EOBHC to become a program of the BZC. They were
planning the transformation of EOBHC to become focused on the African American community
in East Oakland, which begged the question: How might the move to BCZ to center Black people,
Black arts, and Black culture inadvertently cause other oppressed peoples and communities to
be secondary or sidelined? The short answer from the EOBHC Transition Team was that it doesn’t.
Folks shared the following compelling perspectives about EOBHC’s merger with BCZ:
“Systems that were created to oppress all of us were first created to oppress
Black people, so invisibilizing others is not true.”
—Guillermo Carrillo, EOBHC staff
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FOR THE LOVE OF BLACK EAST OAKLAND: EOBHC Sunset Report