On Monday, February 17, 2014 (Presidents’ Day), uniformed security guards at Simon’s Santa Rosa Plaza impeded our first amendment rights to free and unfettered speech, as well as racially targeted and harassed Latino patrons. It all happened in the upstairs food court at the mall. Earlier in the afternoon, many …
When people organize to challenge the oppressive (and often racialized) dynamics in their community, they frequently neglect to consider how those dynamics find their ways into the organizing itself. We do not come together in a vacuum. What happens “out there” also happens, albeit in different and perhaps more subtle …
Timeline [Most information from the media committee of the Justice for Andy Lopez Coalition Many of these incidents are documented in video.] Protest leaders Ramon Cairo, Louie Godoy and other members of the activist group, Andy’s Youth, have been targets of bullying and intimidation by the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department. …
Confused? Curious? Want to Help? Racial Justice Allies Monday Dialog February 3 at 6:30 pm Unitarian Universalist Hall, 547 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa As the murder of Andy Lopez galvanizes the community into action, differing ideas about what happened and what should be done are circulating. Many believe this is …
The East Bay Solidarity Network has released Evict This! a handbook on the history of housing in West Oakland and tools to resist displacement. The burst of the “housing bubble” in 2008 began a process of siphoning the hard earned wealth of families of color into the hands of the …
Many of us know that the U.S. has over 2.5 million people in prison, more than any other country (with 5% of the world population, the U.S. has 25% of the prisoners). We are aware of social justice campaigns working to change laws such as three-strikes laws or mandatory sentencing …
by Elbert “Big Man” Howard As I write this, because of Andy Lopez’ killing, the main focus of many people I know is on youth executions at the hands of law enforcement, and that is as it should be. I also see this in terms of a broader context, i.e. …
When I saw 12 Years a Slave, the overriding impression that came through for me was the intense psychological drive of many of the white characters in the film to extract total submission and obedience from the black men and women they held in bondage. It wasn’t enough that …
Recently I had an opportunity to sit in on a class at Santa Rosa Junior College where the speaker was Steve Martinot and the topic was “How Race Was Created and Became Part of Our Institutions.” One of my big takeaways from this talk was the concept that “the construction …
In the “Good Little White Girl” blog Janet Carter investigates the ways she learned to be white, growing up in a white liberal family in the Vermont of the 1950s and 1960s. She invites us to examine and reflect on how we all, as children, have been conditioned around race, …