by Judy Helfand As the Black Lives Matter movement continues to unfold, I’ve been thrashing about, asking myself what I should do, what I can do, what I want to do. Are #BlackLivesMatter leaders asking for particular support from white people? Does this apparent national upheaval require more from me …
by Adrienne Maree Brown it is our duty to fight for our freedom it is our duty to win we must love each other and protect each other we have nothing to lose but our chains – assata shakur first, we must love ourselves enough to believe in the fundamental …
5 Ways to Take Action after Charleston & Making Connections to Police Violence by Isaac Lev Szmonko Before Dylann Storm Roof took the lives of 9 Black people at the Emanuel AME church in Charleston Wednesday, he said, “I have to do it. You rape our women and you’re taking …
The room was humming with voices and energy as we dragged in extra chairs to accommodate the 36 folks who turned out to dialog on #BlackLivesMatter. After starting with some readings from Alicia Garza, co-founder of #BLACKLIVESMATTER, everyone shared with a few others what they hoped to get from the …
“All I can say is that I have never seen anything remotely like this. It has been exciting, scary, challenging, but most of all empowering. And things are only growing from here.” Report by Carl Patrick The most important thing to remember when analyzing the protests that have erupted in …
In opening our recent organizing committee meeting, we each wrote a word or phrase that related to the work we do with Racial Justice Allies. “Relationism (instead of individualism.” “Courage (not to be confused with testicles).” “Clarify the Issue before the Action.” “What’s the Point?” “ACTION—it’s OK to be embarrassed.” …
I wrote the letter below in support of the middle school students holding a demonstration at their school on April 23, the 6 month anniversary of their school mate Andy Lopez’s killing by a Sonoma county sheriff. It appeared in the Press Democrat on April 24 and at 9:30 AM …
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 …
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 …
At a recent Racial Justice Allies meeting we were talking about how to be an effective ally and a member mentioned her friend who had allied herself with the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, “an organization of Afrikans in America/New Afrikans whose mission is to defend the human rights of our …