On a recent afternoon, a group of roughly a dozen protesters set up on the El Curtola overpass above Highway 24 in Lafayette (in the East Bay). Spotted: flags reading “Trump 2020,” “All Aboard the Trump Train,” and “Sloppy Joe,” a negative reference to President Joe Biden. Some demonstrators held their flags by hand; others attached them to the fence on the overpass itself facing cars below.

Protesters have gathered on this bridge routinely since at least mid-2020 to protest in favor of ousted former President Donald Trump and argue that the election was rigged.

Now, the city of Lafayette…

A few days ago, I did what I said I would no longer do: I engaged in a conversation in which I found myself explaining the Black experience, systemic racism, and the complex, brutal, and sometimes very subtle nature of oppression.

This conversation turned into a debate. That debate made the temperature in my blood head toward a boiling point. This isn’t new—the conversation; the feeling in my blood; the fact that a horrific (on camera) murder of a Black man, George Floyd this time, sparked the exchange. …

Bent over, hands on knees, I gasp for breath as tears begin to stream down my face. Others walk by me on the trail, happy as can be. “How can they be so oblivious? Do they not realize what’s happening right now?” I wipe my face and start my run again, only to stop again a few minutes down the way, unable to contain my emotions.

Running has long been a source of escape for me — a way to clear my mind. …

I got an email from my tax preparer this week that had good news and bad news. The bad news: I owe the feds $2,600 this year. The good news: Today would have originally been Tax Day, but since the federal government extended the filing date due to Covid-19, now I don’t have to fork over the money until July 15.

Every year, like most people, I begrudgingly dole out the money I owe the IRS without thinking about the moral obligations of paying, or withholding, tax dollars. …

“THEY DON’T WRITE GOOD.” Cathy Edens, a San Jose copyeditor, is hand-stitching these words — Donald Trump’s — with tangerine-colored thread on a lacy white cotton hankie. As she embroiders the president’s 2016 dismissal of the New York Times, she captures his bad grammar with each prick of her needle, turning adornment into a tool for empowerment. “This is proof that I have enough determination to stab something a thousand times,” she reflects.

Edens is part of a growing posse of crafty activists who are discovering that the sewing needle may be mightier than the pen when it comes to…

Speaking out on Hong Kong’s tumultuous relationship with China is now an act that has international consequences. Simply look at the uproar and the backpedaling after the Houston Rockets’ general manager Daryl Morey tweeted in support of Hong Kong’s democracy movement. Now the NBA—including Steve Kerr and LeBron James, who were previously vocal on political matters—is widely seen as self-censoring in an effort to not offend China, its largest market.

But even as self-censorship on the former British colony and its pro-democracy protests have become part of how high-profile American companies—including Apple and Activision Blizzard—operate, Bay Area residents and groups…

As a 17-year-old at Oakland Technical High School, I was required to complete a senior research project in order to graduate. Daunted by the high stakes, yearlong assignment, my advisor, Ms. Maureen Nixon-Holtan, and my senior English teacher, Mr. Brennan Nicholas, assured me that all I needed to start was to think of a question that I really, really wanted to know the answer to.

What I landed on: Why do teachers choose to work in Oakland?

With the clear inequity that exists between Oakland schools and the city’s surrounding districts — something I had been acutely aware of for…

The anti-Trump protests at San Francisco International Airport last weekend drew an estimated 10,000 riders to the BART system and broke the record for Sunday ridership.

Ridership counts provided by the BART Communications Department show that 16,079 passengers exited the SFO station during the weekend of January 28–29. The average number of passengers exiting that station on the previous five weekends was 6,557.

In other words, the protest brought 9,522 more people to SFO via BART than during a typical weekend. That’s 2.5 times the average weekend ridership.

The protest grew throughout the weekend. Sunday, January 29, set the record…