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Willie Colón recovers from an accident

by Robert Domínguez

Salsa music star Wil­lie Colon survived a “life threatening” accident while driving his motor home in North Carolina last week and was hospitalized in se­rious but stable condition.

The Bronx-bred sing­er, 70, was traveling with his wife Julia in the Outer Banks when he crashed the motor home Tuesday after­noon, according to a state­ment posted on Twitter Sun­day that included a photo of the badly damaged RV. No other vehicles were involved.

“The Colons were pulled from the wreckage and taken to a local hospital,” wrote Colon’s publicist Nell Mc­Carty, adding that his injuries included “head trama [sic] with concussion, lacerations to the scalp that required 16 staples, and fractures to his C1 cervical vertebra.”

Colon was taken to the Sentara Norfolk General Hos­pital in Norfolk, Va. He was expected to be moved to a New York City medical center for further treatment as soon as he’s better, according to McCarty.

His wife was treated for lacerations and contusions and released, the statement said.

Nicknamed “El Malo” — The Bad One — Colon was the top-selling artist from the New York City-based Fania Records label that made salsa music a world­wide sensation in the 1970s.

While he mostly recorded solo, he’s best-known for his collaborations with singers Hector Lavoe and especially Ruben Blades. Colon’s 1978 album “Siembra” with Blades is considered the best-selling salsa recording in history.

Colon parlayed his musi­cal fame into a second career as an activist and would-be politician. He ran unsuccess­ful campaigns for Congress in 1994 and New York City public advocate in 2001, and has served as an adviser to New York Mayors David Din­kins and Michael Bloomberg.

(New York Daily News contributed to this article)

Don’t you know what they are doing to us?

Who would have thought that the US would be about to collapse in a so short period of time, suddenly. That the great­est economic-military power would have been attacked in silence – not with nuclear bombs or military weapons, but with biological weap­ons, and traitors from within who would have sold them­selves for money and power to the enemies of freedom.

Who would have said that the Apocalypse that I have known in the Holy Scriptures as a child, which describes an end of times, where a satanic destruction takes over the world and a war between good and evil begins, would be witnessed now, in these moments.

That people without fac­es, with no direction other than that offered by a corrupt government run by ‘experts,’ a gagged press and social net­works that keep the popula­tion asleep and unconscious – would be walking without our freedoms guaranteed and protected by the Constitution.

Who would have said that the very rulers chosen by ourselves to protect us from external and domestic enemies, would have contributed to the destruction of the economy, taken away our popular power to govern ourselves, and have overshadowed the divine light that has shone on this blessed land called the United States, while the people did not real­ized what was being done to us.

Those powerful behind the visible power want to kill us, because they say that we are too many and we hinder them, therefore we must stop the births and convince the women of fertile bellies to kill the unborn and thus reduce our numbers, so that an idle and maliciously elite can take the planet for their own benefit.

If you have not noticed, we are about to lose the free­dom and the borders that serve us and each country in the world, that protect our cultures, histories, and an­cestral customs while many of us have not realized it…

They want to put poi­son in us to die gently and slowly, making us believe that it is for our own good; however, they do not tell us that with certain vitamins taken no virus can kill us.

It is time to wake up. Stop watching TV and the junk news where they offer us their violence and scan­dals to keep us scared and exalted. I assure you that they are trying to take God away from you so they can manipulate you and take over your minds more easily.

Freedom was given to us by God and not by the government, don’t forget.

T h i s i s j u s t m y o w n o p i n i o n .

Here’s why eating garlic and on¬ions can prevent diabetes and more

by Evangelyn Rodríguez

Alliums are disease-fighting vegetables widely used as everyday food and traditional medicines. This incredible family of edible medicinal plants is com­posed of garlic, white and purple onions, leeks, chives, scallions and shallots. Ac­cording to studies, alliums contain unique compounds called organosulfur com­pounds and natural anti­oxidants called polyphenols that are responsible for their disease-fighting activities.

In a recent study, re­searchers at the Federal University of Technology  in Nigeria investigated the benefits of eating garlic, white onion and purple on­ion against serious conditions like diabetes and hyperten­sion. They confirmed these by looking at how extracts from the three alliums af­fect the activity of diabetes-related enzymes, such as a-amylase and a-glucosidase, and the hypertension-related enzyme, angiotensin-con­verting enzyme (ACE).

The researchers reported their findings in an article published in the Journal of Dietary Supplements.

Garlic, white onion and purple onion show an­tioxidant, antidiabetic and antihypertensive properties

Garlic and onions are spices commonly used in cooking. They also serve as ingredients in several tradi­tional delicacies in Nigeria that are known to contain plenty of polyphenols. To as­sess the beneficial properties of garlic, white onion and pur­ple onion, the researchers first obtained extracts from each and assessed their inhibitory effects on certain enzymes. They also conducted assays to determine the antioxidant capacities of the extracts.

ACE is the enzyme re­sponsible for converting an­giotensin I into angiotensin II, the hormone that increases blood pressure, as well as body water and sodium con­tent. Angiotensin II elevates blood pressure by constrict­ing the blood vessels; hence, chemicals that can inhibit the activity of ACE, which is re­sponsible for the production of angiotensin II, are used for the treatment of hypertension.

a-Amylase is the enzyme that breaks down starch and glycogen into glucose and maltose (two glucose mole­cules bound together). In hu­mans, this enzyme is produced by the salivary glands and the pancreas. a-Glucosidase, on the other hand, is responsible for breaking down carbohy­drates in the small intestine and facilitating the absorp­tion of glucose. Inhibiting the activity of this enzyme is one of the strategies cur­rently used to prevent the rise of blood sugar levels follow­ing a carbohydrate-filled meal.

The researchers reported that the garlic, purple onion and white onion extracts inhibited the activities of ACE, a-amy­lase and a-glucosidase in vitro in a concentration-dependent manner. At a half maximal in­hibitory concentration (IC50) of 0.59 mg / mL, the purple onion extract exhibited a higher inhibitory effect on ACE than the white onion extract (IC50 = 0.66 mg / mL) and the garlic (IC50 = 0.96 mg / mL) extract.

Meanwhile, the white on­ion extract showed a signifi­cantly stronger inhibitory effect on a-amylase at an IC50 of 3.93 mg / mL than the garlic extract (IC50 = 8.19 mg / mL) and the purple onion (IC50 = 8.27 mg / mL) extract. The garlic extract, on the other hand, showed a similar inhibitory effect (IC50 = 4.50 mg / mL) on a-glucosidase as the white and purple on­ion extracts. All three extracts also showed dose-dependent free radical scavenging ac­tivity and reducing power in the antioxidant assays.

Based on these findings, the researchers concluded that garlic, white onion and purple onion can be used to treat or prevent diabetes and hypertension, thanks to their ability to inhibit ACE, a-amylase and a-glucosidase activity, as well as lipid per­oxidation in the pancreas and the heart. (Natural News)

A democratic food system means unions for farmworkers

by David Bacon

The people who labor in U.S. fields produce immense wealth, yet poverty among farmworkers is widespread and endemic. It is the most undemocratic feature of the U.S. food system. Cesar Chavez called it an irony, that despite their labor at the system’s base, farmworkers “don’t have any money or any food left for themselves.”

Enforced poverty and the racist structure of the field labor workforce go hand in hand. U.S. industrial agri­culture has its roots in slavery and the brutal kidnapping of Africans, whose labor devel­oped the plantation economy, and the subsequent semi-slave sharecropping system in the South. For over a cen­tury, especially in the West and Southwest, industrial agriculture has depended on a migrant workforce, formed from waves of Chinese, Jap­anese, Filipino, Mexican, South Asian, Yemeni, Puerto Rican and more recently, Central American migrants.

The dislocation of com­munities produces this mi­ grant workforce, as people are forced by poverty, war and political repression to leave home to seek work and sur­vive. Any vision for a more democratic and sustainable system must acknowledge this historic reality of poverty, forced migration and inequal­ity, and the efforts of work­ers themselves to change it.

California’s Tulare County, for instance, pro­duced $7.2 billion in fruit, nuts and vegetables in 2019, making it one of the most productive agricultural areas in the world. Yet 123,000 of Tulare’s 453,000 residents live below the poverty line. Over 32,000 county residents are farmworkers; according to the US Department of La­bor the average annual in­come of a farmworker is be­tween $20,000 and $24,999, less than half the median U.S. household income.

Poverty has its price. It has forced farmworkers to continue working during the COVID-19 pandemic, al­though they are well aware of the danger of illness and death. As the gruesome year of 2020 came to an end, Tu­lare County, where the Unit­ed Farm Workers was born in the 1965 grape strike, had 34,479 COVID-19 cases, and 406 people had died. That gave it infection and death rates more than twice that of urban San Francisco, or Silicon Valley’s Santa Clara County. COVID rates fol­low income. Median family annual income in San Fran­cisco is $112,249 and in Santa Clara it’s $124,055. Half of Tulare County families, al­most all farmworkers, earn less than its median $49,687.

Democratizing the food system starts with acknowl­edging this disparity and seeking the means to end it. And in fact, the broader working class of California has concrete reasons for sup­porting farmworkers. CO­VID and future epidemics, for instance, do not stay neatly confined to poor rural bar­rios, but spread. Pesticides that poison farmworkers re­main on fruit and vegetables that show up in supermar­kets and dinner tables. Labor contractors and temporary jobs were features of farm­worker life long before pre­carious employment spread to high tech and became the bane of UBER drivers.

The rural legacy of economic exploitation and racial inequality was chal­lenged most successfully in 1965, when the grape strike began first in Coach­ella, and then spread to Delano. It was a product of decades of worker organiz­ing and earlier farm work­er strikes, and took place the year after civil rights and labor activists forced Congress to repeal Public Law 78 and end the bra­cero contract labor program.

The grape strike was a fundamental democratic movement, started by rank-and-file Filipino and Mexi­can workers. Although some couldn’t read or write, they were politically sophisticat­ed, had a good understand­ing of their situation, and chose their action carefully. Growers had pitted Mexi­cans and Filipinos against each other for decades. When Filipinos acted first by going on strike, and then asked the Mexican work­ers, a much larger part of the workforce, to join them, they believed that work­ers’ common interest could overcome those divisions. Their multi-racial unity was a precondition for winning democracy in the fields.

Democracy in the fields is based on the idea that farm­workers belong to organic communities – that they are not just individuals without family or community, whose labor must be made avail­able at a price growers want to pay. When Familias Uni­das por la Justicia set up a coop to grow blueberries, Tierra y Libertad, it sought to create instead a new ba­sis for community, a sys­tem in which workers could make the basic decisions as a community – about what to grow, how land should be used, and how to share the work without exploitation.

(This article has been shorten to fit space. It will be published later in its entirely online at elreporteroSF.com in the Front Page section.)

5,800 fully vaccinated Americans have contracted COVID-19, 74 deads: CDC

by Zachary Stieber

April 15, 2021 – Nearly 6,000 Americans have con­tracted COVID-19 despite being fully vaccinated against the virus that causes it, fed­eral officials said April 15.

The Americans con­tracted the virus, which causes COVID-19, despite getting both doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, or the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told The Epoch Times via email.

Of the 5,814 fully vac­cinated people who were confirmed as so-called breakthrough cases, nearly 400 required treatment at hospitals and 74 died.

A little over 40 percent of the infections were in peo­ple 60 years of age or older, and 65 percent were female. The CDC declined to make a state-by-state breakdown available, though it has de­veloped a national database where state health depart­ment investigators can enter, store, and manage data for cases in their jurisdiction.

The CDC later post­ed a webpage on the br e akthrough ca s e s .

The figures were for cases through April 13.

More than 78 million peo­ple have been fully vaccinat­ed against COVID-19 in the United States as of April 15.

“To date, no unex­pected patterns have been identified in case demo­graphics or vaccine charac­teristics,” the CDC stated.

“COVID-19 vaccines are effective, and are a critical tool to bring the pandemic under control. All of the available vaccines have been proven effective at preventing se­vere illness, hospitalizations, and deaths. However, like is seen with other vaccines, we expect thousands of vaccine breakthrough cases will oc­cur even though the vaccine is working as expected.”

CDC Director Ro­chelle Walensky stated dur­ing a congressional hear­ing on April 15 that the causes of the breakthrough cases are being probed. “Some of these break­throughs are, of course, fail­ure of an immune response in the host. And then some of them we worry might be related to a variant that is circulating. So we’re looking at both,” she said.

The number of cases the CDC has identified does not include people who con­tracted COVID-19 less than two weeks after their final dose, according to Walensky.

In March, states began reporting numbers for peo­ple who had gotten infected despite full vaccination. Epidemiologists in Wash­ington state identified 217 of the cases, five of whom died. In Michigan, 246 of the cases were recorded be­tween Jan. 1 and March 31. Three of those patients died.

Texas, South Carolina, and Oregon are among the other states that have re­ported more than 100 cases among residents.

Washington state Health Secretary Umair Shah said in a statement: “Finding evidence of vaccine break­through cases reminds us that, even if you have been vaccinated, you still need to wear a mask, practice social distancing, and wash your hands to prevent spreading COVID-19 to others who have not been vaccinated.

“We encourage every­one to get vaccinated as soon as they are eligible, and encourage friends, loved ones, and co-workers to do the same.”

According to U.S. drug regulators, Pfizer’s vaccine is 95 percent effective in preventing infection by the CCP virus. Moderna’s was shown in a clinical trial to be 94.1 percent effective, while Johnson & Johnson’s was 66.9 percent effective. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine was tested when variants were circulating, unlike the others.

The percentages are based on results from vac­cine recipients two weeks after the final vaccination.

The percentage of vaccine breakthroughs in a population depends on multiple factors, including vaccine efficacy, the amount of virus circulat­ing, and the length of time since vaccination, according to Natalie Dean, an assistant professor of biostatistics at the University of Florida.

“I love to see small numbers as much as any­one, but know that numbers like this cannot be directly interpreted as a measure of vaccine efficacy (although I have a feeling they will be). We can only interpret them against a background rate in unvaccinated peo­ple,” Dean wrote on Twitter.

“Similarly, ‘most break­throughs have been in el­derly adults’ should not be read as the vaccine is less effective in elderly adults. The majority of vaccinations (and the longest amount of follow-up time) have been in elderly adults. Again, we need more info to interpret.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the longtime head of the Na­tional Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, stated in a briefing last week that the breakthrough cases are not a cause for concern. “I think the important thing is to look at what the denominator of vaccinated people is, because it is very likely—and what we’re hear­ing at least indirectly, and we’re certainly going to be confirming that—that that number of individuals who were breakthrough infec­tions is not at all incompat­ible with a 90-plus percent vaccine efficacy,” he said.  “So I don’t think that there needs to be concern about any shift or change in the efficacy of the vaccine.”

Young woman of Purépecha origin receives Harvard scholarship

Elizabeth is a young Mexican woman who, thanks to her effort and tal­ent, managed to be accepted and also received a scholar­ship to study at the presti­gious Harvard University

by Mexico Desconocido

Elizabeth is a young stu­dent of Purépecha origin who, thanks to her outstanding tal­ent, obtained a full scholar­ship to study at the univer­sity of her dreams: Harvard. Also, the long-awaited news went viral thanks to Eliza­beth’s emotional reaction upon hearing the news. Here we give you more details!

Mexican talent never ceases to amaze us. And although we have already told you several stories about it (such as Adhara, the Mexican girl with an IQ higher than that of Ein­stein and Hawking), now it is Elizabeth Esteban’s turn.

Is about a young woman who resides in the United States with her parents. These are Purépecha migrants from Michoacán who were forced to emigrate to the neighbor­ing country. Currently, ac­cording to NBC, the fam­ily lives in a mobile home in the state of California.

However, despite the multiple difficulties that the family of indigenous origin has had to face (both econom­ic and cultural), in recent days it received news that has made all the efforts worthwhile.

And it is that, with only 17 years, Elizabeth knew that she had obtained a full scholarship to study Po­litical Science at Harvard University, thus fulfilling one of her greatest dreams.

While she found out, Elizabeth’s reaction was re­corded and was so emotional that it went viral on social networks. Thanks to this, the young woman has already received multiple congratu­lations from Internet users. This is definitely a case of Mexican pride! (Shared from Unknown World).

Harvard – is consistently ranked among the top five universities in the world – despite initially believing she wouldn’t stand a chance.

Harvard’s acceptance rate is 4.7 per cent, while only 12.7 per cent of the student popu­lation is Hispanic or Latino.

The student, who lives in a mobile home in the desert settlement of Mecca, Southern California, has battled constant internet is­sues, making it almost im­possible to learn online dur­ing the Covid lockdown.

In addition, she almost lost her chance at Har­vard altogether when her WiFi cut out during her interview for a place at the prestigious institution, NBC Palm Springs reports.

JACKIE ROBINSON DAY

Seventy-four years ago, on April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson broke the baseball color barrier when he made his historic major league debut. Each year on April 15, Baseball honors Jackie’s legacy by celebrating his life, values, and accomplishments.

By proudly wearing the “42,” Baseball demonstrates a powerful and unified tribute to Jackie Robinson’s legacy. The Giants and Marlins will wear “42” on Friday, April 16 to honor Jackie. Learn more by visiting mlb.com/42

Our path forward to advance racial equity

by Brian Lamb Global Head of Diversity & Inclusion at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Over the past year, and up until recently, we have seen numerous reminders that systemic racism brings devastating consequences for individuals, families and communities. The COVID-19 pandemic is tearing through both Latino and Black communities across the country, disproportionately impacting people in these communities at a much higher rate than white Americans, while leaving a trail of lost jobs (https://projects.propublica.org/coronavirus-unemployment/) and shuttered Latino and Black-owned businesses (https://www. jpmorganchase.com/institute/research/small-business/report-small-businessfinancial-outcomes-duringthe-covid-19-pandemic) in its wake. This, along with  the killing of George Floyd and so many others, has sparked an outpouring of corporate support for Latino and Black Americans in recent months, and we’ve seen numerous examples of companies stepping up to make concrete changes to the way they do business in an effort to advance racial equity around the world. As the largest bank in the United States, it’s long past time for JPMorgan Chase to own its part in creating economic opportunity and inclusion for communities that have been historically marginalized. Systemic racism is a tragic part of America’s history. It’s a congenital defect of our society that’s resulted in racial gaps across virtually every walk of American life, including wealth, homeownership, educational outcomes, health care, incarceration rates and life expectancy. Real lives that matter are impacted by these gaps, and it’s our responsibility to do something about it, given the role of banks in the financial health of the communities we serve.

HOW JPMORGAN CHASE IS COMBATTING THE RACIAL WEALTH DIVIDE

Over the past few months, we’ve reviewed our business practices, products and the role we play in communities across this country to understand the changes we need to make to address the largest drivers of the racial wealth divide. We’ve been especially focused on developing ways to expand affordable lending and housing, increase credit and capital for Latino and Black-owned small businesses, and improve access to tools that will help people in these communities save money and get on a path to sustained financial health. This work led us to make a $30 billion commitment over the next five years to provide economic opportunities in underserved communities — with a special focus on Latino and Black communities. These commitments include loans, equity, and direct funding to promote homeownership and affordable housing. We’ve set a goal of originating an additional 40,000 home purchase loans for Latino and Black households. To do this we’ve committed $8 billion toward mortgages. We also want underserved communities to be able to take advantage of historically low interest rates, and we’ve committed $4 billion toward helping Latino and Black households refinance their home loans.

 

CREATING PATHWAYS TO FINANCIAL HEALTH

Through our own research, we know that Latino and Black households tend to have lower savings and higher debt burdens than other groups. Historically, these communities have been forced to grapple with less access to credit, and often have to pay higher financing fees. Too many Latino and Black Americans are completely unbanked as well, which increases the likelihood of turning to predatory alternative financial services like check cashing and payday lenders. To combat this challenge, we aim to help one million people open lowcost checking and savings accounts. To accomplish this, we must build stronger connections to underserved communities, so we’ve committed to hiring 150 new community managers. We’re also planning to open new Community Center branches in the areas that need them most, and increase our marketing outreach to our communities to raise awareness of these efforts.

LEANING IN ON LA TINO AND BLACK ENTREPRENEURSHIP

NTREPRENEURSHIP If we are to make meaningful progress in closing the racial wealth divide, entrepreneurship must be a key part of the equation. We’re committed to helping the job creators in our communities gain access to the credit they need to launch, grow and scale their businesses. As part of this effort, we’ve committed to delivering $2 billion in loans, and to spending an additional $750 million with Latino and Black companies that can supply products and services to JPMorgan Chase. We’re also going to expand our Entrepreneurs of Color Fund to support more Latino and Blacker smallbusiness owners nationwide. As we move forward with these efforts, we know we must hold ourselves accountable if they’re going to achieve their intended impact. We are going to continually assess how these commitments are performing and will adjust when necessary. Ultimately, we know that no single company can close the racial wealth gap, but it is our responsibility to try — and to work with other companies and policymakers along the way. We’re owning our part in this — and we’re just getting started. Sponsored content from JPMorgan Chase & Co. – Visit JPMorganChase. com/Pathforward to learn more about our efforts to advance racial equity, which include affordable housing, minority-owned businesses, financial health, workforce diversity and more.

CARAVANA: Mobilizing Central American Art (1984-Present

Compiled by the El Reportero’s staff

CARAVANA seeks to humanize and uplift the experiences of recently arrived migrant youth among teenagers and young college students who wish to better understand the context for recent caravanas, or organized groups of migrants. Central American artists on the frontlines, speaking their truths from their perspective and their home base community.

The last thing we want is for an entire generation of Central Americans living in the U.S. to internalize the xenophobic messages spread by mainstream media and by recent political administrations, which undermine their creativity, resourcefulness, and determination.

On March 10 – April 15, at SOMArts, 934 Brannan Street, San Francisco, on Friday from 3 to 5 p.m., and 5:30–7:30 p.m. Saturday/Sunday: 12:00–2:00 p.m., 2:30–4:30 p.m. Virtual Opening | Film Screening. Jazz Caliente Band Live at Riggers Loft Guitarist and composer Lee Waterman’s band, Jazz Caliente, infuses its music with lively Afro-Cuban and Brazilian rhythms. This is an all-star ensemble whose members have appeared with such luminaries as Dizzy Gillespie, Pete Esovedo, Linda Ronstadt, Michael Bolton, and the Temptations. The band’s repertoire ranges from Lee’s original compositions to tunes by Miles Davis, Tito Puente, Duke Ellington, and Sergio Mendes. Friday, April 30, 2021 – 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Cost: $5. At Riggers Loft Wine Company, 1325 Canal Blvd, Richmond, California 94804 San Jose Jazz innovates with stateof-the-art new venue “The Break Room” Set to Debut with “SJZ New Works Fest 2021” for International Jazz Day

San Jose Jazz recently announced its most forward-thinking program to date: The SJZ Break Room. A state-of-the-art pop-up video recording and performance venue inside the nonprofit’s downtown San Jose office, The SJZ  Break Room launches with its inaugural production the SJZ New Works Fest 2021 set to celebrate International Jazz Day from April 29 – May 8, 2021. The SJZ Break Room hosts leading-edge jazz artists on stage (indoors) while live performances are projection-mapped with Ultra-Short Throw Projectors onto high-end projection fabric that fills a 35 x 14 feet bank of floor-to-ceiling windows (SJZ digital video wall) providing a safe, socially-distanced outdoor experience of the concerts.

The SJZ New Works Fest 2021 is a ticketed livestreaming concert (tickets $10 – $20: available at sanjosejazz.org); there will be no in-person audience indoors at The Break Room due to COVID-19 restrictions. Outdoor viewing is for the general public; no tickets will be sold for viewing the shows from San Carlos Street. Would you be interested in highlighting San Jose Jazz’s latest innovative venture The SJZ Break  Room and forthcoming SJZ New Works Fest 2021? The SJZ New Works Fest 2021 features SJZ commissioned compositions from 11 SF Bay Area artists (out of a total of 33 grantees) who were recently awarded $1,000 grants through the nonprofit’s SJZ Jazz Aid Fund. The artist lineup includes GRAMMY Awardwinner Oran Etkin as the headliner (International Jazz Day: April 30 – Free

Livestream – 7:30 p.m.), as well as Bay Area musicians Kev Choice, Javier Santiago, Tammy Hall, Ten Spencer, Vân-Ánh Võ, Chris Cain, Claudia Villela, Justin Ouellet, Howard Wiley, Robbie Benson, and Ian Santillano. Bio information for all artists is listed below and available at sanjosejazz.org.

For detailed information regarding The SJZ Break Room and SJZ New Works Fest 2021, please see the press release below.

Our path forward to advance racial equity

By Brian Lamb Global Head of Diversity & Inclusion at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Over the past year, and up until recently, we have seen numerous reminders that systemic racism brings devastating consequences for individuals, families and communities.

The COVID-19 pandemic is tearing through both Latino and Black communities across the country, disproportionately impacting people in these communities at a much higher rate than white Americans, while leaving a trail of lost jobs and shuttered Latino and Black-owned businesses in its wake. This, along with the killing of George Floyd and so many others, has sparked an outpouring of corporate support for Latino and Black Americans in recent months, and we’ve seen numerous examples of companies stepping up to make concrete changes to the way they do business in an effort to advance racial equity around the world.

As the largest bank in the United States, it’s long past time for JPMorgan Chase to own its part in creating economic opportunity and inclusion for communities that have been historically marginalized. Systemic racism is a tragic part of America’s history. It’s a congenital defect of our society that’s resulted in racial gaps across virtually every walk of American life, including wealth, homeownership, educational outcomes, health care, incarceration rates and life expectancy. Real lives that matter are impacted by these gaps, and it’s our responsibility to do something about it, given the role of banks in the financial health of the communities we serve.

HOW JPMORGAN CHASE IS COMBATING THE RACIAL WEALTH DIVIDE

Over the past few months, we’ve reviewed our business practices, products and the role we play in communities across this country to understand the changes we need to make to address the largest drivers of the racial wealth divide. We’ve been especially focused on developing ways to expand affordable lending and housing, increase credit and capital for Latino and Black-owned small businesses, and improve access to tools that will help people in these communities save money and get on a path to sustained financial health.

This work led us to make a $30 billion commitment over the next five years to provide economic opportunities in underserved communities — with a special focus on Latino and Black communities. These commitments include loans, equity, and direct funding to promote homeownership and affordable housing.

We’ve set a goal of originating an additional 40,000 home purchase loans for Latino and Black households. To do this we’ve committed $8 billion toward mortgages. We also want underserved communities to be able to take advantage of historically low interest rates, and we’ve committed $4 billion toward helping Latino and Black households refinance their home loans.

CREATING PATHWAYS TO FINANCIAL HEALTH

Through our own research, we know that Latino and Black households tend to have lower savings and higher debt burdens than other groups. Historically, these communities have been forced to grapple with less access to credit, and often have to pay higher financing fees.

Too many Latino and Black Americans are completely unbanked as well, which increases the likelihood of turning to predatory alternative financial services like check cashing and payday lenders.

To combat this challenge, we aim to help one million people open lowcost checking and savings accounts. To accomplish this, we must build stronger connections to underserved communities, so we’ve committed to hiring 150 new community managers. We’re also planning to open new Community Center branches in the areas that need them most, and increase our marketing outreach to our communities to raise awareness of these efforts.

LEANING IN ON LATINO AND BLACK ENTERPRENEURSHIP

If we are to make meaningful progress in closing the racial wealth divide, entrepreneurship must be a key part of the equation.

We’re committed to helping the job creators in our communities gain access to the credit they need to launch, grow and scale their businesses. As part of this effort, we’ve committed to delivering $2 billion in loans, and to spending an additional $750 million with Latino and Black companies that can supply products and services to JPMorgan Chase.

We’re also going to expand our Entrepreneurs of Color Fund to support more Latino and Black small business owners nationwide. As we move forward with these efforts, we know we must hold ourselves ac- countable if they’re going to achieve their intended impact. We are going to continually assess how these commitments are performing and will adjust when necessary. Ultimately, we know that no single company can close the racial wealth gap, but it is our responsibility to try — and to work with other companies and policymakers along the way. We’re owning our part in this — and we’re just getting started. Sponsored content from JPMorgan Chase & Co. –

Visit JPMorganChase.com/Pathforward to learn more about our efforts to advance racial equity, which include affordable housing, minority-owned businesses, financial health, workforce diversity and more.

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