Pasadena Black Equity Project

 

The Pasadena Black Equity Project presents the Pasadena Black Equity Fund, a mutual aid fund that aims to support Black residents and families of the greater Pasadena area to pay for essentials amidst the pressures of a global pandemic, unemployment, housing insecurity, and racial injustice. As a local mutual aid fund network, our movement serves as a way for residents to help residents during this crisis by redistributing wealth and resources from those who are most comfortable to those who need them most. Our goal is to help one another and uplift those most impacted by both structural and personal hardships while creating an ongoing community of care and service. 

Black families in Pasadena, just like Black families globally, have been especially affected by structural inequalities that create hardships and disparities for them in employment, health, housing, community and more. In the face of the current crisis, our community has been one of the most affected by unemployment, houselessness & eviction, loss of wealth, police brutality & racial injustice, incarceration, pre-existing health conditions, along with being one of the most affected and infected groups of COVID-19, resulting in the tremendous death rates of our loved ones. African-Americans are 4.7 times more likely to be hospitalized by the virus and 2.8 times more likely to die than white Americans. 

According to US Census data, Pasadena’s Black population dropped by 24% from 2000-2010 due to the economic recession and housing crisis (a lack of affordable housing options) that resulted in the foreclosure and eviction of many Black residents.  The Urban Institute states that during the Great Recession (2007-2009) and its aftermath, African-Americans lost 47.6%, almost half of their wealth.

“Our descriptive results suggest young families and families of color were not on good wealth-building paths before the financial crisis, and our regression results find that they lost the largest fraction of their wealth as a result of the crisis.” - Urban Institute

Black families continue to face economic obstacles today, especially in light of economic hardship due to the pandemic. It is now more difficult than ever for Black families to afford rising housing costs in Pasadena due to a current 16% unemployment rate and due to the ending of COVID-related rent relief and monetary assistance.  These costs can be hard to manage in a time of economic crisis, coupled with the costs of health and other living resources such as food and utilities. In addition, PUSD Innovative Technology Services states that 5.4% of its Black PUSD students are houseless.

The historic structural racism that has created our circumstances makes necessary our own action, involvement, and control/initiative of our wellness and community resources. We must find our own solutions and take care of each other. This is about Pasadena residents taking care of Pasadena residents.  We encourage anyone, especially those with economic and/or white privilege, to consider giving back to the Pasadena Black community in a time of dire need of both economic and racial justice.    

We also want to acknowledge the loss of Black life at the hands of the Pasadena Police Department, Altadena (LA County) Sheriff, and Border Patrol (ICE). 

Rest In Power: Anthony McClain 2020, Darius Smith 2017, Reginald “JR” Thomas 2016, Kendrec McDade 2012, and the many more who were not filmed or written about.

Thank you to the Black community for your love, strength, care, and grace, and thank you to the organizers at Pasadena Black Lives Matter, particularly Jasmine Abdullah Richards, for carrying the torch.