SURJ: Showing Up for Racial Justice

(10 minutes) Intro

Opening—

• who’s land we’re on—moment of silence
• Pump up about 99% resistance
• Lets talk about a “Complex unity”
• Go over agenda

“How we want to be together” – Group agreements

• oops/ouch
• move up move up

(10 minutes) Go-around with names

Break into pairs- “why are you involved in this movement”

(15 minutes) Step up/ Step back activity (activity statements below)

Talk to neighbor about how this was for you

(5 minutes) Statistics (statistics below)

(40 minutes) Definitions:

• facilitator take 1-2 responses
• participant reads definition
• questions?

Power: The capacity to control circumstances

Institutional power- the control that institutions have over the way society is constructed and maintained

Power of the people: power that all of us have as every day people to collectively make change in the world

Oppression: The act of heavily weighing down by unjust use of force or authority

(examples of systems of oppression: male supremacy, white supremacy, etc.)

Privilege: a right, advantage, or favor specially granted and held by a certain individual, group or class, and withheld from certain or all others.

Ally- people who recognize the unearned privilege they receive from society’s patterns of injustice and take responsibility for changing these patterns

Collective liberation: a politics committed to the long-term goal of liberation of all people from all forms of oppression.

—Discussion about terms and how we can work towards collective liberation

(25 minutes) Scenarios- (scenarios below)

break into 4 groups to discuss scenarios

• Discuss what oppressions happening
• Discuss how to interrupt scenario
• Report back

(10 minutes) River activity-

One way that we have participated in oppression, one way we commit to intercepting oppression in the world

(10 min) Eval

Stats

The median wealth of a white family is now at least 20 times higher than that of a black family and 18 times that of a Latino family

Only 56% of Black men over 20 are employed, compared with 68% of white men

About 8% of Black and Latino families have lost their homes to foreclosures, compared to 4.5% of White families
- In Arizona, AZs 6 coal plants– all on native reservations– accounts for 40% of carbon emissions in the US
-4 corner/Navajo generating stations are 2nd and 3rd largest emitters in the country
-the worlds highest rate of adult onset diabetes is found in O’odham people. More than 80% of Gila River Res members have diabetes by 55 yrs old

Scenarios

Scenario #1

Mariana is a 27-year old single mother. She is from Mexico and has been living in Phoenix for 8 years. She is scared about how she will provide a good life for herself and her daughter. It’s hard living in Phoenix because she doesn’t speak much English. She hears about Occupy Phoenix and is interested in checking it out

• What kinds of institutional oppression does Mariana deal with?
• What kinds of obstacles might Mariana have to participating in Occupy Phoenix?
• What kind of steps could Occupy Phoenix organizers take to ensure that Mariana could participate?

Scenario #2

Mike is an Indigenous O’odhamh youth from what is now called South Phoenix. He has been participating in Occupy Phoenix reluctantly for several weeks. One day, he voices at a General Assembly concerns with using the word ‘Occupy’. Several white people jump in immediately in defense of the term Occupy, saying that using the term is what unifies the movement.

• What are some of concerns that Mike might have with the term Occupy?
• What are some of the barriers to Mike being able to participate safely in this movement?
• How could this turn out differently?

Scenario #3

Jenny is a white woman that has been involved in Occupy organizing.

After a while, she notices that women are primarily doing logistics around food, water and general support, while she sees men doing most media, interviews, and more visible work.

She voices her concerns with the gendered division of labor at a GA. Some men respond that they’re all just doing what they’re good at.

• What kinds of institutional oppression is Jenny facing?
• What are some of the effects of this form of oppression on Occupy organizing?
• What are other examples like this that you have seen or experienced?
• How could we disrupt what’s going on?

Scenario #4

Anthony is a formerly incarcerated man who is on parole for drug possession charges. He is walking down the street and sees Occupy organizing. Then he sees the police presence and feels intimidated, but decides to go check it out anyways. After he’s been there for a few minutes, he hears one of the protesters say to the cops “Why don’t you go down the street and bust the real criminals!”. Anthony immediately feels embarrassed and unwelcome, and turns to leave

• What kinds of institutional oppression is Anthony facing?
• What effect does all of this have on how Anthony might feel part of this movement?
• How could this go differently?

Step-up step back statements

I’m going to read a variety of I statements that may apply to some of us in this room. Take a step into the circle if you identify with them. Then I will ask you to look at who is with you, look at who’s not and step back. This is a silent activity—we will have time to talk about and ask questions at the end.

• I grew up in Phoenix.
• I grew up in a single-parent household.
• I or my parents own a house.
• My house or my family’s house has been foreclosed on.
• I have a parent who did not finish high school.
• My family has been on Government assistance at some point in my life.
• I or a member of my family has ever been incarcerated or put into the juvenile justice system for reasons other than participating in political actions or protests.
• My native language is discriminated against in AZ with English only laws.
• I worry about family members of mine being deported.
• My ancestors lost land due to conquest by European colonizers or the U.S. government.
• My ancestors likely got land under one of the Homestead Acts.
• I or my ancestors were forced to live on Indian reservations.
• My ancestors were slaves.
• My ancestors owned slaves.
• I have ancestors who lived in the US but weren’t allowed to own land because of their race.
• My ancestors were voluntary Protestant immigrants from Europe to the American colonies or the U.S.
• My ancestors immigrated to the United States to flee religious or political persecution and violence.
• I or my ancestors arrived as immigrants from the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, or Latin America.
• My ancestors were forced to come to this country against their will.
• I or my ancestors belong to an ethnic group that was excluded from, turned back at the border of, or deported from this country.
• I attended an underfunded urban or rural public high school.
• I attended a well-funded suburban public high school or a private high school.
• It was expected that I would go to college.
• I graduated from college.
• I graduated from college debt-free.
• I have tried to change my physical appearance, mannerisms, language, or behavior to blend in and avoid being ridiculed or judged.
• I have felt afraid of violence directed towards me because of my race or gender expression.
• I generally think that the police have my best interests in mind.
• I worry about being pulled over by the police because of the color of my skin.
• I identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, or Questioning.
• I grew up with health insurance.
• I have regular check-ups with my own doctor or dentist.
• I have health insurance.

A few days after Occupy Phoenix took off, there was a request from the organizers for a facilitation training. A small group of us- coupla white folks and a coupla folks of color—volunteered to lead the training and got together to plan how we could use it as an opportunity to teach facilitation and consensus skills, while also bringing an anti-oppression analysis and dialogue into Occupy Phoenix. The call for a facilitation workshop got lots of people interested in coming, and the flow and frame seemed to work well to create the space to dialogue about power and privilege.

Basic Agenda we used for the facilitation workshop:

• Intro- why consensus, overview framing of world we want to live in and participatory decision-making, etc.
• Make group agreements together- explain role of facilitator in upholding those agreements
• Roles of facilitator (time keeping, tenor and energy of group checking, maintaining agreements, checking and recognizing power dynamics, etc)
• Definitions and overview of consensus, hand signals, etc.
• Facilitated dialogue- presented is a chance to model facilitation skills and practices. *Used this as a space to also address issues of power and privilege in meetings and discussions*

o   Discussion questions: What have you noticed here and else where about who tends to talk more/less in meetings and discussions, and how is that tied to people’s identity and experiences of power and privilege in the world? What is your experience sharing/not sharing in meetings/discussions, and why? (30 minute discussion)

• Reflections: What did facilitators do/not do that was helpful/not helpful, pull out lessons
• Closing and encouragement

The discussion was really charged and challenging at times, as well as powerful and transformative.  It seemed like a number of people had some ah-ha moments and powerful learning, and the format seemed to work well for really ‘getting into it’.

Afterwards, a couple of us who facilitated the workshop stayed around and had 1:1 convos with some of the participants who had had big times with the discussion. We got contact info, and started the process of connecting with some of the white folks more involved in occupy organizing that might be newer to these ideas, and also open and moving in exciting ways.

Truly Building the 99%: Workshop and discussion on colorblindness in Occupy Phoenix

A few days after the facilitation training, we set up another workshop/discussion space to build on the conversations about privilege and power that had opened in the facilitation workshop. Joel Olsens’s article on whiteness and the 99% had been circulating on facebook, and it felt like a good time to make space for that conversation at occupy phoenix.

Basic agenda: (inspired in part by the Occupy Boston workshop description that Cathy Rion sent out, and Joel’s questions in the above article):

• Step up/ step back activity- a combo of United for a fair economy questions on historical privilege/oppression and locally relevant q’s about identity, background, etc.
• Reflections in buddies on the activity and vastly diverse experiences in the group.
• Then we moved into a ridiculously short break-down of the creation of whiteness and white supremacy in this country, focusing on how its been used to divide “the 99%” along lines of race to keep the “1%” in power. Then we broke into discussion using these questions to guide us:
• “How could addressing colorblindness strengthen instead of harm our ability to build across lines of difference?”
  “What would it mean to center the vision and needs of people most impacted by corporate greed and the interlocking systems of oppression upon which it is built?”
  “How have we all been hurt by systems that have divided the 99%?” “What do we all have to gain from addressing these divisions and building an increasingly powerful movement strengthened by diversity?”

It was harder than hoped to get white occupy participants there, and the new folks that showed up to the workshop & discussion were majority folks of color. We ended up having a good conversation, and more visioning of creating a truly multi-racial movement in Phoenix, outreach to communities of color, how to make occupy Phoenix more welcoming and safer if more folks of color do come, etc. A good conversation, but with the exception of a couple folks, it didn’t accomplish our primary goal of engaging more white folks in discussion around unchecked privilege and colorblindness as a step to building a more powerful movement. The facilitation workshop, I believe, was more effective at bringing dialogue around privilege with folks who have privilege and aren’t necessarily interested in addressing it.

Overall reflections:

I think all of the anti-racism working groups, educational events folks are organizing, and loving, critical writings around race and privilege are a huge piece of how we can do this work in this gorgeous, complex, and potential filled moment. Some strategies that stand out to me are where folks are not only investing energy in very important anti-racism working groups/spaces, but actually getting involved in the local occupy organizing, working groups, etc. Carl’s stories from Sonoma co. where the crew organizing and holding down a lot of pieces of the occupy work are also anti-racist organizers, bringing that with them into the big picture organizing are deeply invigorating. Here in Phoenix, we’re juggling our limited capacity to be around Occupy Phoenix consistently, with caution of the dynamic of descending in to do workshops. We’ve been trying to spend more time at General Assemblies, and just around having small conversations with folks. I’m also personally trying to figure out how to best participate in the working groups and central organizing at Occupy, in addition to the anti-racist organizing and education there.

 Towards Collective Liberation: Truly Building the 99%

Next steps: Here in Phoenix, we’re connecting with the newly formed council of color and making plans for a longer workshop/discussion ‘Towards collective liberation: truly building the 99%’, looking how racism and oppression divides the 99% based off of the exciting day-long workshop that folks held at Occupy Wall street earlier this week. Workshop description below:

In this two- hour participatory workshop, participants will share stories and personal experiences as we work towards creating real unity in the 99%. Systems of oppression like racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism, and transphobia work to divide the 99%. In this workshop, we will reflect on how these systems of oppression show up in the Occupy Movement, and discuss how we can best work together to truly build the 99% in Phoenix.