Today, on Juneteenth, it is important to us to take a pause and publicly recognize organizations, activists, campaigns, and journalists that have been doing the work, fighting everyday for a more just tomorrow.
The following are contributions from individual Basecampers.
Jabari, Burlington, VT, US
Organizations:
Reads:
- The Invention of the White Race
- Jackson Rising: The Struggle for Economic Democracy and Black Self-Determination in Jackson, Mississippi
- Fearless Cities: A guide to the global municipalist movement
Kristin, Portland, OR, US
Organizations:
- Portland African American Leadership Forum Action Fund: https://paalfactionfund.org/defundpolice
- Don’t Shoot Portland: https://www.dontshootpdx.org/
Readings:
- End of Policing (Free Ebook y’all): https://www.versobooks.com/books/2426-the-end-of-policing
- Freedom is a Constant Struggle: https://bookshop.org/books/freedom-is-a-constant-struggle-ferguson-palestine-and-the-foundations-of-a-movement/9781608465644
If you live in Portland, please email Mayor Ted Wheeler [email protected] and City Commissioner JoAnn Hardesty [email protected] to tell them what you think of their new budget, which doesn’t defund the police in a meaningful way.
Joan, Portland, OR, from South Dakota, US
Organizations:
Reads:
- So You Want To Talk About Race (available as a free audio book from Multnomah County Public Library, with no waiting. Check if your local library has some free resources.)
Lexi, Brooklyn, NY, US
Local organizations:
- Warriors in the Garden: A collective of activists dedicated to peaceful protest for legislative change. Up to the minute protest scheduling and news via their Instagram.
- Black-Owned Brooklyn: Black-Owned Brooklyn makes it easier for you to discover local Black-owned businesses, in addition to documenting Black life, past and present, in the borough. We seek to lift up and preserve rich stories that are often overlooked in gentrified Brooklyn and encourage you to learn more about — and participate in — the creativity, beauty and self-determination throughout our community.
Follow: The Conscious Kid on Instagram: Parenting and Education through a Critical Race Lens.
Listen: The 1619 Project: An audio series on how slavery has transformed America, connecting past and present through the oldest form of storytelling.
Elizabeth, Longmont, CO, US
In Colorado, the Enhance Law Enforcement Integrity bill, SB20-217, will be signed into law today (6/19/20). Read up on the changes that it will bring.
Organizations:
- Denver Justice Project works with historically marginalized communities to address systemic racism by transforming law enforcement and the structure of the criminal justice system through intersectional movement building, direct action, advocacy, and collaborative education. Volunteer interest form
- Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition: advancing a broader debate and design of public health, safety and funding strategies through collective action. Numerous initiatives and ways to be involved.
- IREE (Institute for Racial Equity and Excellence): Professional development, family advocacy, “to identify and eliminate practices and policies that privilege ‘some’ at the expense of ‘others’. To dismantle the preschool to prison pipeline.”
- Colorado People’s Alliance and Colorado Climate Movement: Environmental and climate justice.
Wailin, Oak Park, IL, US
- Freedom to Thrive is a community group working to reimagine community safety in our town. This last week’s action was a letter-writing campaign asking our two local school districts to terminate their contracts with the police department for School Resource Officers in the middle and high schools. For anyone interested in learning more about removing School Resource Officers and ending the school-to-prison pipeline, check out Dignity in Schools.
- “An Interactive Guide to Ambiguous Grammar” by Vijith Assar was published in McSweeney’s in 2015 but is just as relevant today.
- Speaking of being a critical reader of the news, Block Club Chicago and City Bureau are showing how coverage of a city can be done in an inclusive, community-based way.
- Another great organization is the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting, which works to train and retain investigative reporters and editors of color. Nikole Hannah-Jones, who won a Pulitzer for the 1619 Project at the New York Times Magazine, is one of the co-founders.
Jane, Chicago, IL, US
- The Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, Black Lives Matter Chicago, and over 70 other organizations are working towards the passage of a Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC) ordinance. This ordinance would give communities far more oversight over the Chicago Police Department. If you live in Chicago, please call your alderperson to support CPAC, donate to the cause, and tell all of your neighbors.
- June is also Immigrant Heritage Month. Upwardly Global supports immigrants, refugees, and asylees in utilizing their full breadth of skills in the American workforce. Upwardly Global champions jobseekers in all industries and since COVID, they have doubled down on efforts in the healthcare space specifically, from helping doctors relicense to connecting jobseekers with contact tracing training.
Navid, Chicago, IL, US
Organizations
- Chicago Freedom School provides leadership development and teaches community organizing skills to POC youth. While doing this, they also help mitigate barriers such as food insecurity and lack of internet access. During the first weekend of protests they took in protestors after Mayor Lori Lightfoot issued a curfew and raised the bridges, effectively trapping protestors downtown. The city retaliated by issuing a bogus citation.
- Brave Space Alliance “is the first Black-led, trans-led LGBTQ Center located on the South Side of Chicago, dedicated to creating and providing affirming, culturally competent, for-us by-us resources, programming, and services for LGBTQ individuals on the South and West sides of the city.”
- Invisible Institute. Definitely worth donating your money to. Because of their work in a 2014 lawsuit, the state government has ruled data on police misconduct as public information. They are continuing to do investigative work on human and civil rights abuses. They could use our support right now.
If you live in Chicago, you can find your Alderman’s info here. Tell them to vote for CPAC and defund the police.
Andrea, Chicago IL, US
- Majostee Allstars: an incubator for the personal, cultural and social development of youth in Chicago’s most under-resourced communities
- The Marshall Project: nonpartisan news organization that seeks to create and sustain a sense of national urgency about the U.S. criminal justice system
- Teaching Tolerance: a bunch of free resources from the Southern Poverty Law Center for talking to kids about racism, anti-bias, and social justice
- The Dignity of Resistance by Roberta M Feldman & Susan Stall; a book that chronicles the four decade history of Chicago’s Wentworth Gardens public housing residents’ grassroots activism. Explores why and how women residents creatively and effectively engaged in organizing efforts to resist increasing government disinvestment in public housing and the threat of demolition.
Troy, San Antonio, TX, US
Organizations
- RAICES is doing tireless work to protect the rights of immigrants and refugees
- Fix SAPD is focused on removing state statutes and contract policies that create barriers for accountability and change in San Antonio.
Reading and Listening
- How to Be an Antiracist Highlights why “not racist” is not a thing. You are either working for equality or preserving the status quo
- The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness A devastating look at how the criminal justice system is designed to be so oppressive.
- Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism A reminder that technology is not neutral and racism and sexism are at the root of some of the basic tools we build and use.
- Scene on Radio podcast Season 2: Seeing White Probably the single most impactful thing I’ve gone through yet. Season 3: MEN and Season 4: The Land That Never Has Been Yet also look amazing.
Jim, Manchester, United Kingdom
- The Trussell Trust and FareShare are two organizations working to mitigate the effects of poverty, by running food banks and ensuring that vulnerable people are able to eat. The impact of COVID-19 has increased the need for these services, especially for Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people and disabled people.
- The work of The Black Curriculum is both vital and interesting – the failure of the existing curriculum to implement the recommendations of the Macpherson Report is something that should be remedied. The recent report by the Runnymede Trust: Race and Racism in English Secondary Schools by Dr Remi Joseph-Salisbury covers these topics too, along with discussion on the presence of police in the school environment. I just started reading Natives by Akala, which digs into race and class in the ruins of empire.
- It’s Pride, and both Stonewall and Mermaids are working for LGBT rights in the UK, and supporting members of the community, often against a backdrop of fear and transphobia in the UK media.
- Next on my reading list after Akala is Hood Feminism, by Mikki Kendall.
James, Berlin, Germany, originally from England
Organisations
- Center for Intersectional Justice: aims to make anti-discrimination and equality policy more inclusive and address structural inequalities more effectively in Europe
- ISD-Bund: the Initiative Schwarze Menschen in Deutschland, which works to fight racism and lift up Black projects and voices, here in Germany
- Give Something Back to Berlin: a platform and network which aims to bridge the gaps between migrants from different walks of life
- Refugio: a project of Berliner Stadtmission, where new and old Berliners live and work together
Listenings:
- About Race: following the book Why I’m No Longer Talking (To White People) About Race, Reni Eddo-Lodge catches up on the state of race relations today, in the UK
- Dissect examines a single album per season, one song per episode, currently focused on Beyonce’s Lemonade
- Ear Hustle: the daily realities of life inside prison, produced within the walls of San Quentin
- History: The Shequel: self-proclaimed loudmouth Erin Gibson highlights the women that textbooks overlook
- The Nod: an archive of “all the beautiful, complicated dimensions of Black life”, now a show on Quibi
- Ordinary Equality: a comprehensive history of the Equal Rights Amendment
- Pod Save The People: news, culture, social justice, and politics, from organiser and activist DeRay Mckesson
- Scene on Radio’s Seeing White series: a critical look at racism – usually represented as a Black issue – through the lens of whiteness
- Waiting on Reparations: a show about hip hop and politics, presented by rapper-activists Dope Knife and Linqua Franqa
Willow, Spokane, WA, US
Organizations
- The Black Lens – Spokane’s local, independent, Black led newspaper.
- Spokane Community Against Racism (SCAR) – Did you know that Spokane has the 5th deadliest police force (by population) in America? Changing that is high on the list for SCAR, as is education equity, court monitoring, and more.
- WAISN – WA Immigrant and Solidarity Network works across the state with rapid response teams to respond to ICE attacks, they also work on deportation defense, court accompaniment, and have a bond fund that helps immigrates stay and fight deportation cases.
– Read –
- Beyond Survival: Strategies and Stories from the Transformative Justice Movement How do we handle harm in our communities? What do people do when they don’t call the police? Timely questions, but not new, this collection of essays point at ways to answer how to re-imagine what justice and accountability look like.
- Deciding for Ourselves: The Promise of Direct Democracy How do communities self-organize? How can we keep the momentum of various groups working together for a common good going? These essays give us models for what other communities have experienced, and hope for how to envision and work toward more just communities.
