Weekly Newsletter - April 6, 2020

Support SURJ Bay Area’s Racial Justice Emergency Relief FundSURJ Bay Area has created a Racial Justice Emergency Relief Fund with 100% of donations going directly to local organizations providing critical immediate aid to our most vulnerable communities while fighting the structural inequities that turned a novel virus into a global emergency. Our partner organizations are also continuing the pressing political work of stopping evictions and shut-offs, supporting low-wage workers who are losing jobs, fighting against xenophobia, and releasing those currently incarcerated and detained. See the list of local organizations here as well as learn more about this fund drive. Do you work for a tech company or other business that uses Benevity? Your donation can be doubled or even tripled! Learn more here.
Please donate to the Racial Justice Emergency Relief Fund here. 

Monday, April 6 • 9:00 am – 2:00 pm
Call to Free Jasmine Jones from Federal Custody
The Transgender, Gender-Variant and Intersex Justice Project (TGIJP) is requesting that everyone call U.S. Attorney Nicola Hanna and Probation Officer Brittney Cambre BEFORE Jasmine’s 2:00 pm court hearing. Jasmine is a 48-year-old Black trans woman and TGIJP inside leadership team member who, after serving a 15-year sentence, has been released into federal custody on a decades-old probation violation charge, instead of being released into TGIJP's wraparound re-entry program.
Find out who and how to call here.

Monday, April 6 • 12:00 pm
Webinar - Racial Justice Has No Borders
Join this online town hall on war and militarization in the time of pandemic sponsored by Racial Justice Has No Borders, a broad anti-war coalition that seeks to recenter the conversation about U.S. wars and militarization on the needs and leadership of those most impacted - diaspora, refugee, veteran, Black, Brown and Indigenous communities. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is imperative that we forge new avenues for global solidarity. Speakers include Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, BET News journalist Marc Lamont Hill, Sayokla Kindness, Indigenous Environmental Network, Ash-Lee Woodward-Henderson, Highlander Center, and Ramah Kudaimi, War Resisters League, among many others. Learn more and register here (free).

Tuesday, April 7 • 1:00 – 2:00 pm
Webinar – Calling In the Calling Out Culture:
Compassionate Accountability in These Times
In this SpeakOut Ed Talks webinar, Loretta Ross looks at how we can transform toxic practices that call people out for their mistakes rather than calling them in. Ross is a nationally-recognized women's rights and human rights leader and an expert on hate groups and racism. She brings decades of experience to a topic so critical to building a unified and strategic movement that weaves our strengths together and uses our differences as a platform for modeling a positive future built on justice and the politics of love. Learn more and register here (cost is $5).

Thursday, April 9 • 1:00 – 2:00 pm
Webinar – Reimagining Community Learning Environments:
Teaching Youth How, Not What, To Think
How do we reimagine teaching and learning that provides education for the mind, body, and spirit? Human rights activist and educator Ericka Huggins was Director of the Black Panther Party’s model, community-based, school from 1973 - 1981. In this SpeakOut Ed Talks webinar, she draws on that experience as well as her decades of work in education and community organizing to explore ways in which educators and students can reimagine both in-person and virtual environments that are open, adaptable, positive, inclusive, and student-centered. Learn more and register here (cost is $5).

Saturday April 11 • 3:00 – 4:30 pm
Webinar - Domestic Workers and People with Disabilities: Organizing for Safety and Health in the Context of COVID-19, Wildfires and Power Shutoffs
Domestic workers and domestic employers with disabilities are organizing local mutual aid efforts and campaigns for systems change to defend themselves and their communities against threats to their health and safety in California worsened by the wildfires, power shut-offs, and now the coronavirus. Join the conversation featuring panelists from the CA Domestic Workers Coalition, the Disability Justice Culture Club, Electricity is Life, Filipino Advocates for Justice and the Graton Day Labor Center. Learn about mutual aid efforts and what solidarity looks like and could look like in our current reality of growing public health threats and the lack of proper public safety nets. More information and register here.

Monday April 13 • 8:00 – 9:00 pm
QT Committee Racial Justice Online Book Club Launch: When They Call You A Terrorist
Join SURJ’s Queer and Trans (QT) Committee at this kickoff of an online racial justice book club, reading and discussing When They Call You A Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir. Written by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and asha bandele, this is a powerful memoir by a visionary, queer Black woman who co-created Black Lives Matter and continues to lead racial justice and criminal justice movement work. At the event, in addition to reading an excerpt and discussing in small groups, there will be tools for participants to launch their own book clubs and organize their communities. The event is free but they will be fundraising for TGI Justice Project (TGIJP). No need to read the book ahead of time. Learn more and register here.

Stay Connected While Physical Distancing
COVID-19 is highlighting and exacerbating the vast inequities and injustices in our country and is hitting low-income, disabled, houseless, undocumented, incarcerated, and other vulnerable communities the hardest. How do we show up in the face of this? SURJ Bay Area, with the help of our community partners, has compiled a list of resources so we can stay healthy while continuing to show up for racial justice in the face of COVID-19. ACCE has a list of extensive resources for communities in Oakland, San Francisco, Contra Costa County, among others. California Immigrant Youth Justice Alliance has a list of resources for undocumented Californians. Would you consider sharing your stimulus check with those who won’t be getting one? Read this powerful, thought-provoking article.

Show Up By Supporting These Calls for ActionGiven the impact that COVID-19 has on California's most vulnerable communities, please consider supporting these efforts:

Free People Detained by ICE - Not only has Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) refused to release at-risk people held in crowded and filthy immigration jails with horrific medical care, they heartlessly continue to raid and arrest people to increase the risk of spreading the virus. Now is the time for us as a community to demand the release of at-risk people in ICE custody. Call and join the social media campaign to free people from ICE detention during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Support Domestic Workers - If you employ a domestic worker - housecleaners, childcare providers, or homecare attendants/caregivers - please continue to pay them if you can, even if they are not coming to work. Domestic workers are often the primary breadwinners in their families and are unlikely to receive any funds from the federal stimulus just passed. Please sign the voluntary pledge from Hand in Hand to commit to continuing paying the people you employ in your home, even if they are not coming to work due to shelter-in-place orders. Hand in Hand has also developed recommendations specifically for employers to stay safe and protect their employees.

Write to your Representatives to Support the 5 Principles of a #PeoplesBailout - As Congress acts swiftly to develop relief and recovery packages to address the COVID-19 crisis, we must make sure that they prioritize the health and wellbeing of all people, with no exceptions. Use this tool to send a message directly to your Member of Congress, demanding they commit to these 5 principles: 1. Health is the top priority, for all people, with no exceptions. 2. Economic relief must be provided directly to the people. 3. Rescue workers and communities, not corporate executives. 4. Make a downpayment on a regenerative economy while preventing future crises. 5. Protect our democratic process while protecting each other.

Support East Bay Disabled People - Many disabled people, especially Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, are needing extra support in this pandemic. Caregivers are not able to come to work, immunocompromised people are not able to risk exposure to get groceries, and hospitals may likely reach capacity. The Disability Justice Culture Club, a collective of disabled and/or neurodivergent queer people of color in East Oakland, is working tirelessly to meet community needs during the COVID -19 crisis. Fill out this form to donate resources (such as hand sanitizer, food, money, your time). Go here if you are a disabled person with needs right now that aren’t being met with your immediate support system.

Support Mutual Aid for Vulnerable Communities - In the midst of the coronavirus crisis, communities most affected are coming together to support each other. Senior and Disability Action, Bay Resistance, and a variety of community organizations and labor unions are working to identify and meet the needs of seniors, people with disabilities and health conditions, and workers who are at risk. Fill out this form to request support or to offer assistance, or both.

Sign this Petition by Media Justice to the FCC Chairman - 1) Request predatory prison phone companies offer free phone and video calls with no fees to incarcerated and detained individuals immediately for the next 60 days. 2) Commit the prison phone industry to sign onto the Keep Americans Connected Pledge. 3) Deny Securus’ emergency request to stop paying into the Universal Service Fund.

Support Black Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming (TGNC) Community Members - TGIJP is raising funds for Black transgender and gender non-conforming (TGNC) community members coming out of California prisons and San Francisco jails. Donations help provide housing, food, money, and supplies for TGNC people upon release as well as TGNC people on the inside to buy supplies such as masks, gloves, and hand sanitizer. Donate here. If you can help with meal delivery or laundry pick-up and drop off to a laundromat wash & fold service, please contact queertrans@surjbayarea.org.

SURJ Bay Area Chapter - Join us! Through community organizing, mobilizing, and education, SURJ moves white people to act as part of a multi-racial majority for justice with passion and accountability. Learn more at www.surjbayarea.org. SURJ Bay Area is one of 150 chapters and affiliates nationwide. Learn about SURJ National and our mission, vision, and values HERE.

Want to support our work? You can make a donation for SURJ's organizing and educational efforts with over half of what we raise going to Black and people of color-led partner organizations. Make a one-time donation or become a monthly sustainer HERE. Contributions are tax-deductible.

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Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) Bay Area c/o PO Box 22748, Oakland CA 94609