Only Black Man In A Cafe In Oakland – Sign Of A Diversity Problem In 2016 Before BBQ Becky
ONN – Only Black Man In A Cafe In Oakland – Sign Of A Diversity Problem In 2016 Before BBQ Becky
In this vlog at Perch Cafe on Grand, I noted the first time being the only black guy in a cafe In Oakland in my life – ever. This at Adams Point in Lake Merritt on Grand Avenue in 2016. And this was before the nation was introduced to such Oakland racists as BBQ Becky.
At the point of the vlog, I had never been to a single cafe in Oakland that didn’t have blacks in it, and I mean plural.
Now, the good news is the owner of Perch Cafe is black, and also owns a barber shop next door, but I’m sure he would be both surprised and not surprised by this vlog. So, for anyone thinking Perch is “anti-black”, that’s completely wrong. Give your money to Perch.
But, the vlog notes the passing of a time when there were enough African Americans in the Lake Merritt Area such that a scene like this would be unthinkable even in 2006 – ten years before this.
It is also a sign of the impact high rents and little good jobs for non-tech Oaklanders, many who are black, will have on a neighborhood like Adams Point.
Hopefully, this vlog makes you look around Oakland using a different lens.
Stay tuned.
Note from Oakland News Now Technical: this video-blog post shows the full and live operation of the latest updated version of an experimental Zennie62Media mobile media video-blogging system network that was launched June 2018. The main system is a major part of Zennie62Media’s new and innovative approach to the production of news media. There, an uploaded video is from a vlogger with the Zennie62 on YouTube Partner Channel, then uploaded to and formatted automatically at the Oakland News Now site and Zennie62-owned social media pages. This part allows rapid conversion of YouTube videos from any source channel (with permission and from Zennie62 on YouTube) to Oakland News Now blog posts. The overall objective is smartphone-enabled, real-time, on the scene reporting of news, interviews, observations, and happenings anywhere in the World and within seconds and not hours. Now, news is reported with a smartphone: no heavy and expensive cameras or even a laptop are necessary. The secondary objective is faster, and very inexpensive media production and distribution. We have found there is a disconnect between post length and time to product and revenue generated. With this, the problem is far less, though by no means solved. Zennie62Media is constantly working to improve the system network coding and seeks interested content and media technology partners.