by Judy Helfand Ever since hearing about the Napa Valley Wine Train incident where a group of black women were thrown off the tourist wine train for loud laughing I can’t get it out of my mind. Of course it illustrates the racism so much in the news lately. But …
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 Judy Helfand Attending the conference Geography of Hope: Women and the Land at Pt. Reyes Station, I received another lesson in how the system of white supremacy is simultaneously harming all of us and blocking out the remedies to the problems created. I signed up for the conference lured …
by Judy Helfand In Eating Fire: My Life as a Lesbian Avenger, Kelly Cogswell whirls the reader into her life as a cofounder of Lesbian Avengers in New York City, 1992. The book’s title comes from one of their first actions where several Avengers learned how to eat fire as …
by Judy Helfand I teach a course on American Cultures at a community college where the topic last week was socioeconomic class. Through various experiential activities followed by presentations of graphs and statistics, we’d explored the latest information on distribution of income and wealth across America. All of it rather …
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 …
by Judy Helfand I went to the Black Panther Party 47th Reunion on Saturday to hear the women’s panel at noon and ended up staying the whole day. When the Panthers formed in 1967 I was graduating from UC Berkeley and connected up through my partner and close friends with …
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 …
An article in the Bohemian about a graffiti street art show in Santa Rosa in an unused warehouse had me excited to view the latest social and political commentaries from street artists. What I found unsettled me in ways I am trying to sort out. Instead of a multicultural exhibit …
The RJA Statement of Unity lists “White people as a group have an essential and strategic role in fighting white supremacy/racism.” In thinking about what that means I first stalled on “strategic.” It could mean “what are the strategies we’ll use?” as it suggests the importance of those strategies. And …