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Justin Phillips

Justin Phillips joined The San Francisco Chronicle in November 2016 as a food writer. He previously served as the City, Industry, and Gaming reporter for the American Press in Lake Charles, Louisiana. In 2019, Justin also began writing a weekly column for The Chronicle’s Datebook section that focused on Black culture in the Bay Area. In 2020, Justin helped launch Extra Spicy, a food and culture podcast he co-hosts with restaurant critic Soleil Ho. Following its first season, the podcast was named one of the best podcasts in America by the Atlantic. In February, Justin left the food team to become a full-time columnist for The Chronicle. His columns focus on race and inequality in the Bay Area, while also placing a spotlight on the experiences of marginalized communities in the region.

Stories By Justin Phillips

$5 million for each longtime Black resident? S.F. has a bold reparations plan to consider

Martin Luther King Jr. demanded “riches of freedom” for Black Americans. A local reparations proposal is answering his call — will San Francisco politicians heed it? By Justin Phillips

Six decades since the Fillmore’s destruction, can other S.F. neighborhoods ‘create a new future’ for Black culture?

It may be time to stop pining for the Fillmore’s glory days as the “Harlem of the West” and start thinking about opportunities for new Black cultural epicenters in a city that has hemorrhaged most of its Black residents. By Justin Phillips

East Bay reformers got their progressive D.A. Now comes the hard part

Grassroots anti-violence and pro-reform organizations helped Pamela Price become the first Black district attorney in Alameda County. Now they want to make sure Price lives up to her progressive promises. By Justin Phillips

California’s reparations task force has had two years to create a historic proposal. Is that enough time?

California’s reparations task force spent two days in Oakland discussing what’s owed to descendants of enslaved Black people. With only seven months to complete its work, I can’t help but wonder whether the deadline is the largest hurdle. Justin Phillips

S.F. leaders, is crime out of control or not?

If there is an inaccurate perception that crime is out of control in San Francisco, city leaders deserve blame for stoking it. By Justin Phillips

What happens when Black organizers get millions for community activism, no questions asked?

Oakland’s Radical Redistribution Fund, which gave $3.5 million to Black-led organizations and people affected by violence, has rocked philanthropic conventions. By Justin Phillips

S.F. should do justice to jury diversity by preserving stipend program

Be the Jury has shown itself to be effective and cheap in its first six months in San Francisco. Here’s what the city and state need to do to make it permanent. By Justin Phillips

London Breed had the Midas touch on election night. What does that mean for her — and S.F.’s — future?

What the mayor demonstrated Tuesday is that popularity is not a prerequisite for political influence in San Francisco. By Justin Phillips

Elon Musk may not be the owner Twitter needs, but he’s the owner it deserves

Twitter fans shouldn’t worry that Elon Musk will run the company into the ground. The real worst-case scenario is Musk turning a profit and inspiring other social media companies to follow his clumsy, careless lead. By Justin Phillips

Black voters already know the GOP wants to take their rights away. Do other voters?

Two new polls reiterate how engaged Black voters are in politics, despite the fact that politicians have never consistently viewed Black voter participation as essential to democracy. By Justin Phillips

Oakland’s rap scene shared its spotlight with mayoral candidates, only to see them squander the opportunity

Politicians are still more likely to try taking advantage of rap’s popularity without understanding it. By Justin Phillips

A celebrated Bay Area playwright confronts racism with his latest work. Does he also stumble over it?

With his play about the San Francisco recalls, Oakland artist-provocateur Ishmael Reed tries to hold up a mirror to society. He ends up also putting one in front of himself. By Justin Phillips

Oakland residents are heavily surveilled. It hasn’t made them any safer

Law enforcement agencies are eager to rapidly embrace the latest surveillance tech without adequately safeguarding against privacy breaches and user error. Why do we let them? By Justin Phillips

Is San Francisco’s ‘war on fentanyl’ a drug war by another name?

If you turned a recent news conference by Mayor London Breed, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins and Police Chief Bill Scott into a word cloud, this is the message you would have received. By Justin Phillips

The mystifying lesson of the Los Angeles audio leak

Four veteran Democrats engaged in the same bankrupt fallacy as far-right purveyors of replacement theory — that for one group to do well, another has to suffer. By Justin Phillips

Who’s also responsible for biased policing? The people who call police

New data on racial bias in police stops in Mill Valley shows that one group keeps escaping accountability when it comes to continued racial profiling: The people who call police. By Justin Phillips

One demographic has the harshest views of S.F. institutions — and its influence is growing

Multiracial people are a growing demographic in San Francisco and, according to the SFNext poll conducted for The Chronicle, the most critical of city government, education and policing institutions. By Justin Phillips

It’s the Bay Area’s Eden — but it’s far from paradise with few trees and inescapable heat

In unincorporated Alameda County, an area known as Eden sizzled during the recent heat wave with little tree cover, one of the factors climate experts say exists in low-income communities most vulnerable to extreme heat. By Justin Phillips and Chasity Hale

A Bay Area town was erased. Nearly 60 years later, its neighbor is atoning

It’s been 58 years since Russell City, a largely Black and Latino farming community, was annexed into Hayward. Now Hayward is trying to find out what became of the displaced townfolk. By Justin Phillips

The Black Panther Party’s past is rooted in Oakland. So is its future

More than three decades after Huey Newton’s death, the Black Panther Party that he co-founded is still trying to correct its story and shape future activism. Can a $5 million research center accomplish both goals? By Justin Phillips