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Partnering with CURB

12/11/2021

 
Eve Higby
Showing Up for Racial Justice partners with BIPOC-led organizations, supporting their efforts and following their lead. What do our partners do and how do we show up for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color? How does accountability manifest in these relationships? This article is part of a series exploring these questions in depth for the fifteen community partners of Bay Area SURJ.
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Rally at Chowchilla Valley State Prison for Women 26 January 2013. Photo by Daniel Arauz
CURB’s work
Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB) is a coalition of over 80 grassroots organizations working for decarceration in California. Their mission includes reducing the number of incarcerated people, reducing the number of prisons and jails operating in the state, and redirecting funds away from the correctional system and into health and human services. 

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Rethinking Thanksgiving

11/19/2021

 
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Artwork by Kandi White, Indigenous Environmental Network, CultureStrike and Micah Bazant
Are you facing a Thanksgiving gathering that has the potential for conflict about the meaning of the day and the history of the celebration? We’ve got some ideas on how to deconstruct some of the myths and start the conversation about how it all really happened.

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Timeline to 2022: How We Repeal California’s Three Strikes Law

7/22/2021

 
Since this timeline was published there have been a lot of changes as organizers reassess the timeline needed to repeal California’s Three Strikes Law. Stay tuned for more information about how to get involved coming in early 2022.
​​
It’s time to repeal California’s Three Strikes law. This unjust 1994 law made it mandatory for anyone convicted of three felonies to serve 25 years to life if any two of the crimes were considered serious or violent. The result was a tidal wave of life sentences that have disproportionately affected African American, and mentally ill and physically disabled defendants, costing taxpayers billions of dollars each year. Learn more about this law here. 

SURJ Bay Area partner organizations CURB and Initiate Justice have formed the Repeal California’s Three Strikes Law Coalition with organizations across the state to put an initiative to repeal this law on the California ballot in November 2022. But how does change like this move from idea to reality?​
The short answer is through a lot of grassroots organizing and hard work! The process began in May 2021 with polling to test the concept with the electorate and determine how much work was needed. Then, the Coalition wrote the language for the proposed ballot measure in June and submitted it to the Attorney General’s office for a ballot title and summary.


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The Latest Culture Wars: The Censoring of Teaching About Race and Racism

6/20/2021

 
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Educators gather in Washington DC on June 12th National #TeachTruth Day of Action (Photo from Zinn Education Project) Image Description: a multiracial group of people holding signs and a banner that reads #TeachTruth and #WeWontLie in front of the African American Civil War Memorial.
Attempts to censor discussions of race and racism are underway nationwide. GOP lawmakers in at least 21 states are either introducing legislation or have already passed bans that impact K-12 classrooms and in some cases, colleges and universities. At the federal level, 30 House Republicans signed on to a pair of bills that would prohibit diversity and anti-racism training in the military and federal agencies.

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Why Repeal California’s Three Strikes Law?

5/23/2021

 
​By SURJ Bay Area 
​
​Norman Williams was sentenced to life for stealing a car jack from the back of an open tow truck. Charles Ramirez got a life sentence for stealing a car radio. Vincent Rico, too, for the petty theft of two pairs of children’s shoes from a department store. Why such harsh sentences? All were sentenced under California’s Three Strikes Law, which made it mandatory for anyone convicted of three felonies to serve 25 years to life sentences if any two of the crimes were considered serious or violent.
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Partial view of an incarcerated person holding a photograph of loved ones

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Old Pictures, Old Racist Realities

3/9/2021

 
By Heather Millar 

I’ve always known that my mother’s side of the family came from the South. They were plantation owners. They enslaved Africans. After the Civil War, they joined clubs like the “Daughters of the Confederacy.” My mother used to tell stories about her great-great-grandmother going to college, taking an enslaved teenager as a servant.
Old black and white photos of two men wearing hats, dark face coverings and white shoulder sashes. One man is putting a notice on the side of a barn, while the other man holds a gun in one hand and the reins of two horses in the other.
Photo credit: Author's family album. In an old black and white photo, two men are wearing hats, dark face coverings and white shoulder sashes. One man is putting a notice on the side of a barn, while the other man holds a gun.

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Disabled Black History

3/7/2021

 
​By SURJ Bay Area 

​Throughout February 2021, SURJ Bay Area celebrated Black History Month by highlighting the stories of Black individuals with disabilities, joining others in the #DisabledBlackHistory hashtag on social media. Here is a collection of those posts, beginning with Black American Sign Language and presenting short profiles of some familiar and some lesser-known figures.

#BASL
​

Black American Sign Language, BASL, or Black Sign Variation is a dialect of American Sign Language (ASL) used most commonly by deaf African Americans in the United States. Because of 1954’s Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision, “separate but equal” was ruled unconstitutional and schools were desegregated, including schools for deaf children. It then became apparent that Black students had learned a variation of ASL, now called Black American Sign Language. BASL differs from ASL by phonology, syntax, and vocabulary, uses variations on ASL words, sometimes requires a larger signing space, uses two-handed variants of signs, and uses words taken directly from African American Vernacular English.
A drawing of four hands with dark brown skin signing the letters BASL is framed on a textured brown background.
A drawing of four hands with dark brown skin signing the letters BASL is framed on a textured brown background.

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Partnering with the Ella Baker Center

2/18/2021

 
​By Micki Luckey 

Showing Up for Racial Justice partners with BIPOC-led organizations, supporting their efforts and following their lead. What do our partners do and how do we show up for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color? How does accountability manifest in these relationships? This article is part of a series exploring these questions in depth for the fifteen community partners of Bay Area SURJ.
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At a demonstration at San Quentin sponsored by EBC and Restore Justice, protestors hold a banner that states “If they’re not safe, we’re not safe” showing their emphasis on working with the people who are directly impacted by incarceration and in particular, by the outbreak of COVID-19 in prisons. Photograph by Brooke Anderson, Movement Photographer.

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Yes, in my front yard!

10/26/2020

 
By Heather Millar 

​I really couldn’t believe it when my next-door neighbor said it. “I’m selling my house,” she told me a couple weeks ago as we stood on the path between our houses. “They’re going to be taking pictures. I’m wondering — would you mind taking down your ‘Black Lives Matter’ sign when the photographer comes?”
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Everyone should be allowed to vote.

10/16/2020

 
By Star Zagofsky 

I recently watched Whose Vote Counts, Explained, a 3-episode Netflix series about voting that should be required viewing for anyone interested in racial justice. The first episode, “The Right to Vote,” starts things off with a long list of eye-opening facts like how, until the mid 1800s, it was common for non-citizens to vote in US elections.

As it turns out, many voting restrictions that seem normal in the US are, in fact, not. Today more than 45 countries permit non-citizens to vote, and in 35 countries either all or most people convicted of felonies can vote, even while in prison.

So why is the US different?
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People March for Voting Rights in Washington, DC, 1963. Photo credit: Marion S. Trikosko. Colorized by: Jordan J. Lloyd

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  • Home
  • Start here
    • Start here
    • Other Chapters
  • Take Action
    • Events
    • Action Hour Signup
    • Newsletter Signup
    • Legislative Action List
    • Put up a BLM Sign
    • Get a Black Lives Matter T-Shirt
    • Asylum Seeker Sponsorship >
      • What is Asylum?
      • What is Sponsorship?
      • Become a Sponsor
      • Asylum Seeker Support Partner
  • Get Educated
    • Blog
    • Study and Action Series
    • Resources for Families
    • COVID-19 & Racial Justice
  • About Us
    • Vision, Mission, Values
    • Community Partners
    • Committees
  • Donate