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iccardo Waites is a local leader dedicated to unifying and empowering the Black/BIPOC community of Central Oregon and beyond. He is the founder and executive director of the Central Oregon Black Leaders Assembly (C.O.B.L.A.), founder of We Black Radio (WBR), Navy submarine veteran, father of nine, and Central Oregon resident of 22 years. Waites was compelled to organize his efforts in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in 2020.

In this Episode, Waites discusses C.O.B.L.A. programs, WBR, and the fight for racial equality in Central Oregon.

Listen Now:

This article appears in Aug 24, 2022 – Aug 30, 2023.

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Listen: Racial Equality in Central Oregon with Riccardo Waites 🎧

by The Source Staff, The Source - Bend, Oregon
August 30, 2022

<h1>Listen: Racial Equality in Central Oregon with Riccardo Waites 🎧</h1> <p class="byline">by The Source Staff, The Source - Bend, Oregon <br />August 30, 2022</p> <p><span class="fdnDropCap">R</span> </p> <p> iccardo Waites is a local leader dedicated to unifying and empowering the Black/BIPOC community of Central Oregon and beyond. <span>He is the founder and executive director of the Central Oregon Black Leaders Assembly (C.O.B.L.A.), founder of We Black Radio (WBR), </span><span>Navy submarine veteran, father of nine, and Central Oregon resident of 22 years. Waites was compelled to organize his efforts in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in 2020.</span> </p> <figure class="wp-block-image size-full alignright alignright"><a href="https://www.bendsource.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/bend_dont_break_podcast_-_riccardo_waites.webp"><img src="https://www.bendsource.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/bend_dont_break_podcast_-_riccardo_waites.webp" alt="" class="wp-image-40078" /></a></figure> <p> In this Episode, Waites discusses C.O.B.L.A. programs, WBR, and the fight for racial equality in Central Oregon. </p> <div class="soundTags"> </div> </p> <p><b><i><br /> Listen Now: </i></b> </p> <div> <a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-779383396" title="Source Weekly - Bend, Oregon" target="_blank">Source Weekly - Bend, Oregon</a> · <a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-779383396/bend-dont-break-racial-equality-in-central-oregon-with-riccardo-waites" title="Bend Don't Break: Racial Equality in Central Oregon with Riccardo Waites" target="_blank">Bend Don't Break: Racial Equality in</a> <a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-779383396/bend-dont-break-racial-equality-in-central-oregon-with-riccardo-waites" title="Bend Don't Break: Racial Equality in Central Oregon with Riccardo Waites" target="_blank">Central Oregon with Riccardo Waites</a> </div> <div> </div></p> <p>This &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://www.bendsource.com/news/listen-racial-equality-in-central-oregon-with-riccardo-waites-17565526/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; first appeared on &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://www.bendsource.com&quot;&gt;The Source - Bend, Oregon&lt;/a&gt; and is republished here under a &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/&quot;&gt;Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;img src=&quot;https://i0.wp.com/www.bendsource.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/cropped-Untitled-design-4.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;amp;ssl=1&quot; style=&quot;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&quot;&gt;</p> &lt;img id=&quot;republication-tracker-tool-source&quot; src=&quot;https://www.bendsource.com/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=40072&quot; style=&quot;width:1px;height:1px;&quot;&gt;&lt;script&gt; PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: &quot;https://www.bendsource.com/news/listen-racial-equality-in-central-oregon-with-riccardo-waites-17565526/&quot;, urlref: window.location.href }); } } &lt;/script&gt; &lt;script id=&quot;parsely-cfg&quot; src=&quot;//cdn.parsely.com/keys/bendsource.com/p.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;

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