Update 8/27: Thank you all so much from the bottom of our hearts! We are feeling the relief that comes from knowing there are so many people who care about Jamal. Based on how successful this fundraiser has been so far, we are raising our goal to $4,000 because we truly believe we can get there, and Jamal's need will always be there. Please keep sharing this link, and let's see what we can do!
This is a fund to help Jamal, our beloved elder, stay in his housing, pay for various living expenses, and save up for his end-of-life wishes which will include funeral services (coffin, grave, headstone, eulogy, religious service) interment in the cemetery in Santa Cruz, and possibly flying family members from across the country. Please pitch in $5 - $10 or whatever you can, or simply share this link with others.
Jamal (he/him) is a Queer Black Elder of 78, who arrived in California in the 1970s as a part of the Great Migration of African Americans, which first saw a migration from the deep South into the Northeastern US in the 1960s , and then out West to places like Oakland, San Francisco, and LA in the late 70s and early 80s. He is a true elder, wise and empathetic, who has faced a lifetime of racism, and is now teetering on the brink of houselessness in Santa Cruz. We need your help to keep him housed, pay the bills, and save up for his end-of-life wishes.
Read Jamal's story below:
Jamal Makiba was born as Felix Alexander Brown on March 13th, 1946. Growing up in Memphis, Tennessee during the Jim Crow segregation era, he was a part of the Black Baptist Church, and his practice of gospel singing is a life-long discipline that has kept his spirits from failing even in the hardest of times. His mother, Helen Mannery, was a low-wage domestic worker for wealthier white families, and Jamal's home life was fraught with abuse from both siblings and father figures alike. He had a special relationship with his mother, however, who always supported his endeavors and protected him from attack, calling him "Peewee." His family moved to Ohio in the 60s, where sadly, his mother was murdered by an abusive partner when Jamal was in his 20s. Afterward he came alone to the San Francisco Bay Area.
He began to work for American Airlines as the first African American employee in his workplace post-segregation. After being told time and again to work late with no overtime pay, and being singled out because of his race, he began to sell and give-away airline tickets illegally to make up for his stollen wages and to retaliate against his employers. When the police caught on he knew he had to leave the country to avoid prison time. London, Spain, Rio de Janeiro, and countless other places; he was in exile, running from one place to the next to keep out of the law's reach. Jamal is now losing his ability to keep track of linear time, but by our estimation in this realm of chronology, we believe he was abroad for around 5 years in the 1980s.
Upon his return to the United States, he had outrun the law long enough that he had his crimes absolved by a judge. In the 90s he moved to Santa Cruz, and has been here ever since. In the years to follow he lost his home, all of his money, and most of his connection to his existing family. However he has built lasting relationships with many in the unhoused and disabled community, participating in Food Not Bombs, the Progressive Missionary Baptist Church, and working as an in-home caretaker for IHSS.
When my partner Nadia and I met Jamal, he was living in a bus on the street, and he seemed to be fairly happy that way, so we did not intrude. But one day he nearly died of carbon monoxide poisoning after trying to keep himself warm. As a result he moved in with Nadia's neighbor who turned out to be an abuser, which is why we intervened to find him more suitable, safe, and clean housing. After a while we realized that his mental faculties were in decline. He was diagnosed with Alzheimers, and so we have made sure he gets the medical care and in-home support that he needs to age in place, and live with dignity for the last years of his life. He has told us he wishes to be buried here in Santa Cruz when he dies.
Paying the rent has become more of a challenge. His social security income is quite meagre due to a life of mostly under-the-table work and years of exile. He lives in low-income housing, but he still needs a little more income every month to make up the remaining rent and utility bills, and to pay for groceries. Jamal is not currently receiving Section 8 housing because the waitlist has been closed for several years.
There is still a lot we might never know about Jamal because of his difficulty with memory, but one thing's for certain: he is well-deserving of an easeful and dignified retirement, and for his final wishes to be honored when he finally leaves this realm and moves on to the next.
Please help us reach our goal of $3,000 this year to help with all of Jamal's expenses, keep him housed, and put something away for his eventual end-of-life rites.
If you have ever benefited from White privilege, or you're a part of a family with generational wealth in the U.S., we invite you to be cognizant that your wealth and privilege were accumulated through the extraction of labor from enslaved African and African American people in the U.S. You can consider this gofundme campaign to be an opportunity to pay reparations directly to someone who is in financial crisis as a result of that same system of chattel slavery, the repercussions of which continue to resound in the present as we continually deal with systemic racism.
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