On Nov. 13, Racial Justice Allies hosted a free virtual event to talk about the status of reparations for African Americans in California, and ideas for taking individual and collective action. Below are links related to issues we discussed, as well as for further research. California Reparations Report: https://oag.ca.gov/ab3121/report Presentation …
Citing a famous example of poor use of the N-word, the author asks for places where white people could learn, explore and interrogate that part of themselves related to racism
(image by Jana Curcio) Years ago, I had a conversation with two white women about the daily burden of being nonwhite in a world of whiteness. My ultimate point was we cannot understand because there is nothing like it in our white reality. We can empathize but the visceral aspect …
From Awareness to Action: Allyship for Trans Liberation Join us Aug. 21 for a conversation with Drew Rose from Positive Images as we explore what it means to practice intersectional allyship with trans and gender-expansive communities. Drew Rose (he/they) is the Training and Education Manager at Positive Images, Sonoma County’s …
Have you ever been in a room with a boss or supervisor where they sit you down and say they have been “getting reports about you”? Not substantiated reports with evidence, nothing like that. Simply, reports in the general sense? The dilemma, when this type of situation presents itself, is …
by Judy Helfand I’m sitting in the audience for a post-production discussion of Kill Move Paradise, a play in which four black men try to make sense of their recent killing. A white woman in the first row is speaking and I’m thinking Stop! Don’t you, a white woman, tell …
At the January 11 dialog, after a brief history on the invention of whiteness (see below for an outline of points covered) participants divided into small groups to reflect on ways we individually perpetuate whiteness in our personal lives. Each group listed what came up and shared with the whole …
by Judy Helfand When a new member of Racial Justice Allies asked why there wasn’t more posting on our blog given all that is going on, I replied that we’d been too busy to write. But the question lingered and I reflected more deeply on what I’ve been doing over …
Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi founded #BlackLivesMatter in 2012, after George Zimmerman, responsible for the death of Trayvon Martin, was acquitted for his crime. Trayvon Martin was posthumously charged for his own death. These women moved the hashtag from social media into the streets, holding conference calls, connecting …
As told to Z It was a quiet summer afternoon and I was just getting home from playing tennis with my daughter. I parked in front of my home and was unloading my gear from my car. A silver car slowed down as it was passing me and the white …