WP4BL’s Response to Atlanta Murders

Content warning: This article discusses violence, including murder, sexual violence, and violence against sex workers.

Like many of you, we at WP4BL have spent the past two days sitting with and mourning the loss of Delaina Ashley Yaun, Paul Andre Michels, Xiaojie Yan, Daoyou Feng, Julie Park, Park Hyeon Jeong, and the two others, whose names have not been released, as a result of the mass murder in Atlanta. We recommend reading and echo the Movement for Black Lives’ recent statement condemning anti-Asian violence.

As the motive of these murders appears to sit at the intersection of white supremacy, anti-Asian hatred, misogyny, classism, and whorephobia, we are sure many of you are feeling shaken. While it is not a coincidence that this violence happened within the context of a rise in anti-Asian and specifically anti-East Asian hatred in the U.S. as a response to race-baiting around COVID-19 in the press — a context exacerbated by the Biden Administration’s deportation of over 30 Vietnamese refugees on Monday — we believe in this moment it is also important to recognize the specifics of why these women were targeted.

While the perpetrator has stated that his act was done because of a sex addiction, his targeting of East Asian women at a massage parlor reflects the ways in which our culture has fetishized Asian women, specifically through the tropes of the massage parlor as “front” for brothel work and the subservient feminine Asian sex worker. The victims’ possible status as sex workers does not deprive them of their their right to a life without violence and harm. Regardless of their sex worker status, these women were targeted via the murderer’s perception that they were easy victims because they were vulnerable. Vulnerable because they were Asian in a white supremacist nation-state. Vulnerable because they were women in a patriarchal nation-state. Vulnerable because they were working class in a capitalist nation-state. Vulnerable because they were immigrants/the descendants of immigrants in a colonial-imperial nation-state. Vulnerable because they were presumed to be sex workers in a whorephobic nation-state. Most of all, they were targeted for all of these reasons together, because the “isms” are co-constructed and co-dependent, and because, in upholding whiteness above all, the U.S. puts vulnerable communities at an increased risk of being subject to violence.

These entrenched structures of violence alongside the profligacy of gun violence in the U.S. does not make these losses any easier to process, and in many ways it forebodes the fact that these structures will remain intact if we do nothing. The timing of these murders so close to the one-year anniversary of Breonna Taylor’s murder by the state speaks volumes to the ongoing violences experienced by all women of color in the U.S.

Despite the ways in which the state is set up to harm, not protect, women of color, we have seen that this mass murder has already been used to justify furthering policing in NYC, and we urge everyone in this moment to reflect on the non-carceral systems of support we can center to protect communities of color. Policing as a structural arm of the white supremacist state is never a solution to protect the AAPI community, or any community.

Despite this racist violence, we have a rich history of movement building to draw from and we know we can uplift one another when we come together to fight for change. Alongside the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement in the past eight years, we have also seen the continued increase in the organizing of other people of color-led movements. While white supremacy seeks to pit different racial groups against each other, we know that racial justice will only be achieved via coming together across race, class, ability, and many other identities; it is through coalition and solidarity work that we have the greatest chance at dismantling the systems that only benefit the most powerful. As white people, our proximity to whiteness and our silence will not save us; only working in community to abolish racist systems will save us.

We at WP4BL stand in solidarity with all communities of color in the face of white supremacist violence, with the Asian community, and right now in particular with working class Asian femme migrants.

ACTION ITEMS:

For those in a position to give support in this moment, we follow Dr. Lisa Lowe’s suggestion to support the following organizations:

1. Asian Immigrant Women Advocates (AIWA)

2. Butterfly (Asian and Migrant Sex Worker’s Network)

3. Chinese Progressive Association

4. Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence (CAAAV)’s Organizing Asian Communities

5. Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance (KIWA)

6. National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF)

7. Red Canary Song

8. Sex Workers Action Network (SWAN) Vancouver

For people looking to further support communities, we recommend the following events:

1. Thursday 3/18, 8 p.m. ET: Red Canary Song Vigil for 8 lives lost in Atlanta shooting

2. Friday 3/19, 4 p.m. ET: How to Stand Up Against Anti-Asian/American Harassment When It Happens to You by the Barnard Center for Research on Women’s Upcoming Anti-Violence and Bystander Intervention Trainings with Hollaback!

3. Monday 3/29, 3 p.m. ET: Bystander Intervention to Stop Anti-Asian/American Harassment and Xenophobia by the Barnard Center for Research on Women’ s Upcoming Anti-Violence and Bystander Intervention Trainings with Hollaback!

4. Tuesday 3/23, 6 p.m. ET: Anti-Asian Violence and Black-Asian Solidarity Today, a lecture by Tamara K. Nopper, presented by Asian American Writers Workshop

We also suggest people read Call On Me, Not the Cops: A Community Resource by 18 Million Rising and watch Don’t Be A Bystander: Six Tips for Responding to Racist Attacks, a video production by BCRW and Project NIA.

Finally we would also like to uplift the Red Canary Song Response to 8 Lives Lost in Atlanta.

This piece was written as a collaborative effort by members of White People 4 Black Lives. WP4BL is a white anti-racist collective and activist project of the Alliance of White Anti-Racists Everywhere (AWARE-LA) and operates within a national network of white anti-racists called Showing Up for Racial Justice. WP4BL is rooted in acting in solidarity with Black Lives Matter: Los Angeles. Visit www.awarela.org and follow us @wp4bl.

How to Talk about Race During the Holiday Season*

by White People 4 Black Lives

For many of us, 2020 has been a year of intense conversations. The uprising, the election, and issues related to Covid-19 have brought systemic racism to the forefront and people have felt compelled to call others in with a greater sense of urgency than in years past. But, despite the immediacy of the situation, the knowledge that it takes time and practice to master the art of these conversations can help us be more successful with them.

As we approach the holidays this year and spend more time with family, we have an opportunity to practice our skills and make lasting impressions. Black academic, writer, and lecturer Rachel Cargle reminds us: “In the world of social media we can feel like our words don’t matter if we don’t have a ‘platform.’ I can’t stress enough that you have a sphere of influence and any space you occupy IS your platform. Your classroom, your church, your book club, your PTA, your living room, your dinner table.”

On such occasions where people are gathered (even as many of our gatherings will be over Zoom this year) it is likely that someone will make a comment that reflects biases linked to overt or covert white supremacy and racism. This is where anti-racist work begins in earnest. It can feel stressful or risky, depending on your relationship with the commenter. First, know that this is not the only time you have to address the behavior. See this moment as a gateway to future conversations, as opposed to thinking that this is the only chance to get it “right.”

Next, remember that thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are deeply rooted in an individual’s experience. From birth we begin to internalize messages about the world. This means that it will be nearly impossible to undo a lifetime of messages from a white supremacist world and shift a person’s consciousness with just one conversation. So, manage your expectations and be realistic about what you can actually achieve as you engage.

Finally, as we move forward in our practice, it’s important to remember that we can always choose to leave a conversation if we feel unsafe (not to be confused with uncomfortable). For example, if the other person becomes aggressive or condescending, or if the conversation escalates to the point of not being productive, it’s okay to walk away. You didn’t “fail” if the person you’re in dialogue with didn’t undergo a magical transformation in one conversation.

Anti-racism is lifelong work. These conversations are recurring opportunities to engage with that work. Even if we miss or leave a conversation today, we can continue to be in relationship with this person as they go on their journey, and there will be other opportunities to connect with them. Also, it is worth remembering that it is not our job to respond to every single racist comment that we hear. That sort of perfectionism and individualism is actually part of white supremacy culture and our ultimate goal is to find new ways of being that don’t replicate that culture.**

Tools:

• Many articles share suggestions on how white people can talk to other white people about sensitive subjects such as race, class, gender, or ability. These include: The White Ally Toolkit created by David W. Campt, and a Thanksgiving toolkit from Showing Up for Racial Justice may help you talk to your family. These two resources offer tips on staying present in a conversation and will increase your chances of communicating effectively.

• Actively listen — don’t just wait for your family member to stop talking so you can edge in with your next talking point. This is the only way to truly know where the other person is coming from, as hard as it might be to hear.

• Check out this short video on how to deal with racist jokes; the suggestions on how to handle this can be useful for responding to jokes or other offensive comments. Speaking about our own continuous journey instead of making it about things other people should be doing is a good inroad.

• Use facts sparingly, and ask first if they are open to hearing something you learned about that either shifted your thinking on an issue or impacted you.

• Work with the individual: some respond better to emotional appeals, while others prefer statistics. Know what kind of information your family members respond to and prepare for that.

Looking for more resources?

• SURJ Thanksgiving toolkit (2016)

• Rachel Cargle, Harper’s Bazaar (2018)

• SURJ Families: holiday resources

• Tori William Douglas’ White Homework

• How to support your partner of color at your white family’s holiday gathering — this was written specifically for people in romantic relationships, but many of the rules apply if you know someone will be the only person of color at your family meal.

• Check out your local community offerings. Some of this article was adapted from AWARE-LA’s “Difficult Conversations” workshop, as part of their Unmasking Whiteness Institute and converted into a standalone workshop this past summer. AWARE-LA Saturday Dialogues are great places to dig into these discussions with other white people doing anti-racist work. Saturday Dialogues currently all take place over Zoom; check out our schedule and register here.

* When we say “the holidays,”, we are talking about Thanksgiving (also known as “Thankstaking,” a day of mourning for many Indigenous people in the US), and winter holidays such as Christmas and Hanukkah. For more information about Thankstaking and how to talk about the harm that this holiday has caused to Indigenous people, check out the International Indigenous Youth Council Instagram Live on Friday, November 20th at 6pm Pacific with White People 4 Black Lives. The Live will also be available on White People 4 Black Lives’ Instagram account after the fact.

** The last two paragraphs of this piece were adapted from AWARE-LA’s “Difficult Conversations” workshop.

This piece was written as a collaborative effort by members of White People 4 Black Lives. WP4BL is a white anti-racist collective and activist project of the Alliance of White Anti-Racists Everywhere (AWARE-LA) and operates within a national network of white anti-racists called Showing Up for Racial Justice. WP4BL is rooted in acting in solidarity with Black Lives Matter: Los Angeles. Visit www.awarela.org and follow us @wp4bl.

The Election is Over. What’s Next?

After four years of overt presidential investments in white supremacy, misogyny, ableism, transphobia, and xenophobia, it seems we are finally up for some degree of a respite. (If you need a reminder, McSweeney has a list of 967 atrocities that can be found here.) It is worth remembering the constant state of rhetorical and material violence we have all been subject to for the past four years, violence that, as COVID-19 death rates have shown, drastically and disproportionately affects communities of color, Indigenous communities, and the poor and working class.

We do not say all this to present Joe Biden as the “answer” to the structural violence Trump has made hyper-visible throughout his time in office. Trump is and has always been the symptom, not the cause, of a heightened need for white people to protect white supremacy. A Biden presidency will not end the systemic and structural cruelty that disproportionately targets the Black community, and the President and Vice President-Elect will need to be held accountable. However, now is a time to shift our energy and focus. Grassroots organizers have spent the past four years putting out Trump’s fires, which severely limited their capacity to change the environment that caused them. And an incoming Biden-Harris administration presents an opportunity for all of us to move forward and refocus on the goal of addressing the systems that allowed for such violence. The Black Lives Matter movement began under a Democratic presidency, and the fight for Black lives will continue under the Biden-Harris administration. As members of White People 4 Black Lives, we will continue to follow the leadership of Black organizers in Los Angeles, and below, we provide some suggestions as to how white people can get ready for the ongoing fight for racial justice and do the same.

Before we get there though, we will take a moment to celebrate the amazing wins for L.A. County this election, almost all of which have been led by L.A. Black organizers to whom we offer our deep gratitude!

• The Re-Imagine L.A. Coalition organized the county passing Measure J, which permanently commits a minimum of 10% of our county’s unrestricted funds toward community programs and services, and alternatives to incarceration.

• Initiate Justice’s organizing passed Prop 17, restoring voting rights to all people who have completed their jail and prison sentences.

• JusticeLA and collaborating orgs ensured the failure of Prop 20 and Prop 25, stopping the imposition of harsher criminal sentencing and the replacement of cash bail with racist algorithms which would have led to higher rates of pretrial incarceration.

• BLM LA’s Jackie Lacey Must Go Campaign has succeeded and got DA Jackie Lacey out of office after 8 years of her refusal to prosecute for the deaths of 626 LA residents at the hands of law enforcement officers. The new Los Angeles DA, George Gascon, has claimed he will reopen cases and has arranged to meet with families of those who have been killed by law enforcement. BLM-LA will continue to lead work to hold the D.A. accountable.

• DSA-LA and Team Nithya’s organizing has led to Nithya Raman, who ran on a progressive, care-first oriented platform, being voted in as the new LA City Council representative in CD4.

All of these wins are the result of years of organizing, hard work, and community building. They are proof positive that when we organize in community, we have the power to transform our city, our county, and our state for the better, which will ultimately have a positive impact reaching far beyond the local level.

It’s also important to acknowledge the South’s rich and longstanding tradition of Black grassroots organizers, as well as Black people organizing in other regions of the country, and how instrumental their efforts were in delivering the White House to Joe Biden as well as other national wins:

• Stacey Abrams and her organizations, Fair Fight and the New Georgia Project, successfully led the fight to flip Georgia blue.

• Black Voters Matter has been engaged in community outreach in the south, and across the country, long before the election.

• Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Metcalfe Park Community Bridges and Black Leaders Organizing for Communities: these intensive organizing efforts were driven by Black women after witnessing the devastating results of voter suppression in 2016. These groups were in the trenches during Covid, going door to door, and arranging online meetups.

• And countless other Black-led groups and political action committees: the Electoral Justice Project, Higher Heights for America, and Raising Our Sisters’ Electability, to name only a few.

Now, for some action items moving forward in a post-Trump world:

• Protect the validity of this win. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won this election with a mandate. Still, we will need to be vigilant and speak out against state-sanctioned abuses, including pro-Trump actions that turn violent. Check out our 2020 post-election response page for ways to plug in. SURJ National also has a list of post-election calls to action, including ways to get involved in ballot curing in Georgia.

• Resist the urge to slip back into complacency. A change in leadership doesn’t mean a change in a government that was designed to uphold white supremacy. Over 70 million Americans voted for another four years of Trump, more than the number of Americans who voted for him in 2016. Engage with white friends and family and hold them accountable, especially the ones who got activated over the summer during the uprisings.

• Get involved in local politics. This is where change happens, and you can take the lead from Black and POC-led organizations such as Black Lives Matter Los Angeles to engage in their multi-racial calls to action. Call your local politicians and offices. Write letters. Phone bank. Call city council meetings. Make it very clear that elected officials work for us, the people, and that they know what our priorities are. If you live in Los Angeles, consider signing up for JusticeLA’s action alerts, which will plug you directly into weekly local actions

• Join a group! White People 4 Black Lives is just one of many organizations you can get involved in to fight for causes you care about — and doing this work with a group is so much easier (and more effective) than trying to go it alone. Guidance and support are not only helpful but necessary. You can register here for one of our upcoming White People 4 Black Lives orientations, or find your local chapter of Showing Up for Racial Justice here.

Though we still have to keep up the fight, we also want to celebrate the end of a blatantly racist, violent administration that impacted our most vulnerable fellow Americans. And we are committed to continuing to do the hard work of dismantling white supremacy here in Los Angeles County and beyond.

For further reading/watching:

This video from the Movement 4 Black Lives

This statement from Black Lives Matter

This piece was written as a collaborative effort by members of White People 4 Black Lives. WP4BL is a white anti-racist collective and activist project of the Alliance of White Anti-Racists Everywhere (AWARE-LA) and operates within a national network of white anti-racists called Showing Up for Racial Justice. WP4BL is rooted in acting in solidarity with Black Lives Matter: Los Angeles. Visit www.awarela.org and follow us @wp4bl.

Ending Extreme Sentencing: The Road towards Abolition

Recent demands to defund the police and shift resources away from law enforcement to community-led alternatives have gained steam across the country. We are witnessing a contemporary civil rights movement that will fundamentally alter the role and landscape of policing in the United States. What we are not seeing, however, is similar momentum to defund and abolish prisons. Police are the first point of contact for almost everyone who is impacted by the criminal legal system, but there are many other actors — e.g., district attorneys and judges — who perpetuate systemic racism as well as other forms of oppression such as classism, sexual violence, and transphobia.

The same way that modern policing has consistently failed us, our prison system is a massive failure. If it were working well, we would be the safest nation in the history of civilization considering the scale of mass incarceration. Perversely, crime rates in California are at historic lows, yet incarceration rates remain staggeringly high (a 900% increase since 1978). One factor that contributes to our inflated incarceration rate is extreme sentencing — an inhumanely lengthy prison sentence. As abolitionists, we call for an end to this harmful practice.

The Equal Justice Initiative highlights several examples of extreme punishment, including three strikes legislation, drug offenses, and virtual life sentences (a prison sentence that exceeds one’s normal lifespan). Abolitionists see ending these types of sentencing as a form of harm reduction on the way to abolishing the entire criminal legal system. When it comes to legislation, abolitionists only work to further that which will ultimately limit the size and scope of the criminal legal system. As abolitionists, it is our duty to shine a light on the deep harms inflicted by the criminal legal system. We seek to bring about a crisis of legitimacy for the entire criminal legal system. Police abolition and prison abolition are inextricably intertwined; dismantling the entire criminal legal system helps us build a world free from state-sanctioned violence and create a new system rooted in healing, accountability, and transformative justice.

If we are to envision a world without police, we must necessarily envision at the same time a world without prison guards and prisons. Prison guards [or correctional officers (CO’s)] are cops who police those behind bars, yet they operate with even less oversight than cops on the streets. When a police officer uses excessive or lethal force, a phone is sometimes nearby to record the incident and draw attention to it. When a CO uses excessive force inside a prison, the harm is completely invisible to the outside world and accountability is unattainable. CO’s operate with complete impunity, and because of how powerful their union is, even less is done by the public and legislators to challenge their practices. When we call for abolishing the police, we mean all forms of policing that exist in our state: we cannot get rid of one without simultaneously abolishing the other.

Efforts to defund the police confront the power that police unions wield to resist reform efforts. In California, the correctional officers’ union, CCPOA, is a similarly powerful player in state and local politics, and has consistently contributed to politicians and ballot campaigns for the past thirty years. Their motto, that they “Walk the Toughest Beat in the State,” speaks to the ultra-tough, militarized image they valorize and embody. For job security and self-preservation reasons, CCPOA is invested in keeping prisons open and full. This is an oppressive cycle where people’s livelihood as well as the profitability of a whole industry with powerful lobbyists at the state, local and federal level relies on criminalizing and caging human beings while completely ignoring the harmful destructive and murderous nature of all prisons and jails.

“Prisons do not disappear social problems, they disappear human beings. Homelessness, unemployment, drug addiction, mental illness, and illiteracy are only a few of the problems that disappear from public view when the human beings contending with them are relegated to cages.”

- Angela Davis

As Law Professor John Pfaff and others have argued, the most powerful players in our criminal justice system, and those who are most responsible for extreme sentences, are prosecutors. The District Attorney’s office decides which charges to file for the prosecution, and these charges often have minimum sentences attached to them, leaving judges with little discretion when deciding the sentences. The fact that D.A.s are elected can increase their propensity for extreme sentences, as the electorate punishes them for leniency in rare examples that may make the news, but does not pay attention to patterns of harsh sentencing. Furthermore, District Attorneys use the threat of extreme sentences to encourage plea deals, which are much less costly and time consuming than going to trial. Roughly 95% of all defendants plead guilty and take a deal instead of going to court.

There is, however, legislation that seeks to abolish some of these harmful patterns. In March 2020, California Assemblymember Kamlager introduced Assembly Concurrent Resolution 186 to call for an end to extreme sentencing. Our partners at Initiate Justice co-sponsored this resolution alongside Re:Store Justice, and have been instrumental in getting it much-needed attention. According to the resolution, “One in three people in California prisons is serving a life or virtual life sentence, which is, at 31.3 percent, among the highest rates in the country”. Nationwide, we see Black people disproportionately subjected to this predatory policing and imprisonment: though less than 15% of the national population, Black people “comprise 48.3 percent of people serving life sentences, 55 percent of people serving virtual life sentences, and 56.4 percent of people serving life sentences without the possibility of parole.” The Assembly put this legislation on hold due to the pandemic, but it will likely be reintroduced in 2021.

The impact of this long-term incarceration on our state budget is mind-boggling as well. The 2020–21 budget for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) is a staggering $13.4 Billion, roughly 10% of the state general fund — a higher percentage than any other state in the nation. Furthermore, “The cost to incarcerate one individual for life can cost up to $5,000,000.” If we ended extreme sentences, our society would have the potential to reinvest that money into alternatives to incarceration, such as much-needed social services.

When we call for prison abolition, we not only call for the dismantling of prisons in a vacuum, but dismantling all systems that contribute to seeing prisons as “solutions” — all facets of the massive criminal legal system that condemns so many people to life in prison, including District Attorneys’ offices, state surveillance, Sheriffs’ Departments, Probation, and school police. If we allocate resources to prevent and address the root causes of harm, which are inequality, systemic disinvestment, and trauma, we can address these issues in our communities without using a punitive approach, while simultaneously abolishing police and prisons in our society. One piece of this complex puzzle is the abolition of extreme sentences. No one should be punished with life (or a large portion of one’s life) behind bars, and the end of this inhumane process would be part of the full abolition of this harmful system that we are working towards.

White People 4 Black Lives is a white anti-racist collective and activist project of the Alliance of White Anti-Racists Everywhere (AWARE-LA) and operates within a national network of white anti-racists called Showing Up for Racial Justice. WP4BL is rooted in acting in solidarity with Black Lives Matter: Los Angeles. Visit www.awarela.org and follow us @wp4bl.

Initiate Justice is a non-profit organization dedicated to ending mass incarceration by activating the power of people impacted by incarceration. You can learn more about their work by visiting their website, and following them on social media @InitiateJustice.

Tree of Life Synagogue Solidarity Statement

We are Jews in White People 4 Black Lives (WP4BL) whose parents and grandparents were immigrants, whose family members were both survivors and victims of the Holocaust, and who are immigrants ourselves.  We, and the WP4BL collective, are in solidarity and mourning with the Tree of Life community in Pittsburgh and with Jews across the world. We share our deepest condolences, care and support.

We see the murder of 11 people at the Tree of Life Synagogue as rooted in anti-semitism as well as in white supremacy, both of which are sanctioned and inflamed by the current administration’s fascist policies and rhetoric.  It’s no accident that earlier in the week a white supremacist killed two Black people in another hate crime in Kentucky. As members of a white anti-racist collective, we recognize the connection between the anti-semitic attack in Pittsburgh, white supremacy, U.S. imperialism/capitalism and the systemic violence and oppression that Black, Brown, Muslim, Indigenous, LGBTQ, poor and other marginalized communities experience daily.  Although we center anti-Black racism in our work, we do not and cannot separate the fear/hatred/oppression of one group from the fear/hatred/oppression of any other, as we work in solidarity to make this world a better place.

In the face of our horror, trauma, and outrage over this hate crime, will need to continue seeking  safety and healing. We hope and urge that Jewish communities around the country will seek safety and healing not only with other Jews and friends, but also in coalition and solidarity with other oppressed and traumatized groups and communities.  Our resistance together against institutions that perpetuate and inflame anti-semitism, white supremacy, racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, etc. is stronger and more powerful collectively. Moreover, safety must be based in collaboration and community building, rather than in armed security or police which further criminalizes and harms Black people, people of color (including Black Jews and other Jews of color), people with disabilities, Muslims,  immigrants, and trans folks.

Every Wednesday in Los Angeles, for an example,  WP4BL joins with a Black Lives Matter–led coalition of community groups, and family members of victims of police violence, to protest the disproportionate death by cop of Black and brown youth, women and men; bringing pressure to bear on the County DA, Jackie Lacey, to do her job and prosecute killer cops, or resign.  So far on her watch over 400 people have been killed by “law enforcement,” yet not one police officer has been charged with a crime. We say racialized murders by cop are hate crimes too, and that Jackie Lacey should be prosecuted for colluding in covering them up.

We bring this up here not to diminish or distract from the terror and trauma of last week’s attack in Pittsburgh, but as a cry for solidarity and co-liberatory efforts between communities.  Anti-semitic and anti-Black violence and trauma are supported by systems that maintain white supremacy. We can start to heal by working collaboratively to dismantle these oppressive systems and the conditions that perpetuate them.  As white people, both Jews and non-Jews, we are impacted negatively by white supremacy. We have a duty, and it’s in our interest too, to dismantle the systems that harm us all. Our organizing work is a place for people to work on healing the world and ourselves.  We will continue to challenge anti-semitism, as well as anti-Blackness, xenophobia, Islamophobia, transphobia, homophobia, class oppression and the oppression of other marginalized groups, understanding that these struggles are deeply connected. Those of us who are Ashkenazi Jews will also continue to seek out opportunities to collaborate with and support Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews and Jews of color.

In addition to our statement of solidarity, we are amplifying this post from the Catalyst Project’s Facebook page with which we are significantly aligned.

Erica Garner’s Life and the Death Culture of White Supremacy

Erica Garner, 27, died of a heart attack on December 30, 2017. Many close to her say she died of a broken heart — a heart broken by a violent white supremacist system that repeatedly demonstrated that her life, and that of her father, Eric Garner, did not matter.

Eric Garner was murdered when Daniel Pantaleo, the arresting officer, placed Mr. Garner in an illegal chokehold. While the medical examiner ruled the death a homicide, and Garner’s death by the state became a national scandal, justice for the murder has never been served. Despite having a checkered past as an officer who abused his authority, he continues to enjoy full-time employment with NYPD. This was no accident. NYC mayor Bill de Blasio, the so-called “progressive,” prevented Officer Pantaleo’s previous disciplinary records from being used in the court proceedings. These could have helped the case for justice, and without them the Staten Island grand jury refused even to indict Pantaleo.

In response to her father’s death, Erica Garner became an ardent racial justice activist. She led twice weekly protest marches and die-ins to the site of her father’s death, and emerged as a key NYC figure demanding accountability for police killings of African- Americans. As author Ezinne Ukoha wrote, “She never stopped holding the NYPD and Mayor Bill de Blasio accountable and spent the better days of her young life being an active justice seeker.” She was a tireless advocate for people of color whose lives had been destroyed by state violence, only to succumb to the impacts of state violence at age 27.

How did state violence kill Erica Garner?

Political scientist and commentator Melissa Harris-Perry, in Elle, clearly makes the case that Erica Garner’s death is attributable to institutional racism and state violence in America. State violence, physical and psychological violence, is enacted by the institutions in power on the most marginalized members of the population — Black people, indigenous people, and other people of color — who face outrageous mistreatment and discrimination through police departments, courts, schools, health cares and other powerful societal institutions.

The Movement for Black Lives Global Network sums up the myriad ways in which Erica Garner’s death is a result of state violence:

Erica died of a heart attack but her death was anything but natural; she died at the hands of a state that builds healthcare systems that neglect the needs of Black women and Black mothers in particular, a state that is engaged in a war on Black people, a state that has constructed and deploys a policing system that directly kills Black people and indirectly murders our families and loved ones by forcing them to engage in a never-ending struggle for justice under this current system. Erica’s death stands as a stark illumination of the ways in which police violence also takes an unimaginable toll on our families: emotionally, spiritually, financially, and physically.

The wounds from the criminal injustice system. Since 1980, before Erica’s father was killed by the NYPD in 2014, he had been arrested 30 times due to the NYPD’s misguided broken windows theory of policing. Disproportionately, it’s Black women and children, like Erica Garner, who suffer the most under the weight of oppressive policing and constant exposure to the criminal justice system, and on whom the criminal injustice system takes its most crushing toll.

The wounds from activism. Erica Garner was an activist with all her might. And while stress and anxiety of organizing takes a toll, organizers persevere because they know their lives, their families’ lives, and the life of their community depend on it. Ashley Williams, an organizer with the Charlotte Uprising coalition in North Carolina, puts it like this: “Police misconduct, poverty, and white supremacy do not take vacation days, so black activists feel like they can’t either.” Garner addressed her situation by stating “I’m struggling right now, with the stress and everything, ’cause this thing, it beats you down. The system beats you down until you can’t win.” Still, she kept fighting.

The physiological wounds of racism and the U.S. healthcare system. At the time of her death Erica Garner was a postpartum mother of two, with a 4 month old. She lived in a country where maternal mortality is not only the highest in the developed world, but is also disproportionately higher for Black women, and higher in NYC than the rest of the country. After giving birth to her baby, Erica Garner was diagnosed with an enlarged heart. According todata from the National Center for Health Statistics, African-American women suffer rates of heart disease that are twice as high as white women; African-American women are also 30% more likely than white women to die of heart disease. “African American women live sicker and die younger than Caucasian women,” the study says, “largely as a result of heart disease.” Additionally, like her father, Erica Garner had asthma. A U.S. Department of HSS Office of Minority Health report found in 2015 that African-American women were 20% more likely to have asthma than white women, and African Americans were almost three times more likely to die of asthma-related causes than whites.

A call to action for white people… On one hand, stopping institutional racism and state violence seems overwhelming; on the other, doing nothing makes us complicit in the system’s well-being. As white people of conscience, it is our duty to continuously center, lift up, and support the fight for justice. With that in mind, we call upon white people to take action to interrupt the racism that exists at all levels and to stop being complicit in the white supremacist system. We must think beyond just “fixing the system.” For the white power elite who hold ultimate control, the system isn’t broken at all, and there’s only so much change they’ll allow. Institutionalized racism, with its attendant state violence, works quite well for those who prosper and benefit from the conditions that allowed Eric Garner to die and his killer walk free, or his daughter to die, no doubt from living a life where she was never meant to survive.

We MUST expand our consciousness and understand that the systems are working perfectly well to ensure that Black people, indigenous people, and other people of color are locked up and/or blocked out of society. Institutional racism dehumanizes Black bodies and allows police officers to feel a threat to their safety where none exists. Systems protect law enforcement officers who kill and denies justice to grieving families and communities. They mitigate against the physical and mental health, the economic security, physical safety, and overall well-being of Black lives. We must think beyond the limitations of oppressive systems to help imagine, create, and support new systems entirely.

Erica Garner supported the Movement for Black Lives; her tragic death is a reminder that each of us, particularly white people, must assume some level of responsibility to continue supporting the movement for Black liberation. One way to take action is to support the Movement’s policy goals, strengthening legislative efforts that bring justice to Black and Brown people. You can donate to the movement here.

It’s also important for white people to organize together in support of people of color led movements, in the ways they request. We must understand how we, even as white people of good conscience, participate in and receive material and psychic benefits from the white supremacist system, and therefore that we too are implicated in state violence. It’s our responsibility to ask, what are we willing to do? What are we willing to give up? What are we willing to say? Are we willing to unapologetically say Black Lives Matter? Are we willing to give up some of our comfort to step into anti-racist action? Will we put our time and financial resources toward the liberation of Black people?Here are also some ways to think about the impact of Erica Garner’s death through the lens of reproductive justice and ways we can embolden ourselves to do better for Black women in 2018. Join us in fighting against white supremacy and supporting these efforts.

LAUSD’s Failed Metal Detector Policy

White People for Black Lives stands in solidarity with the students of the Los Angeles Unified School District, Schools LA Students Deserve, Youth Justice Coalition, Black Lives Matter, United Teachers of Los Angeles, American Civil Liberties Union, Public Counsel, and numerous other organizations and individuals in opposing LAUSD’s Random Metal Detector Search Policy outlined in Bulletin 5424.2.

Public awareness of gun violence in schools grew exponentially with the Columbine shootings and subsequent similar events. In the aftermath of these tragic occurrences, cities and school districts throughout the nation implemented measures with the goal of increasing student safety. Many of these measures enforced similar strategies to that of the LAUSD’s Random Metal Detector Search Policy. However, after years of trying these methods, results have shown the opposite effect. Far from achieving a safer and more disciplined learning environment, these policies instead have instilled fear and distrust of the educators; the LAUSD’s Random Metal Detector Search Policy creates distractions, interferes with the students’ ability to focus on their studies and learn, and erodes their sense of dignity and personal safety at school.

California and Los Angeles have painted an image of a progressive diverse culture. Yet people of color living in Los Angeles consistently experience a different reality from that which is presented through the media, especially in terms of their disproportionate contact with the demoralizing and inhumane criminal justice system. California and Los Angeles have been leaders in this area as well, with the largest prison population amongst the states. This policy presents a continuation of the “school to prison pipeline” that undermines Los Angeles’ progressive image as well as presents an existential threat to the wellbeing of citizens of color of all ages.

The Random Metal Detector Search Policy is rife with abuse, racial profiling, and other problematic outcomes, like students’ psychological distress and increased incarceration rates. There is growing evidence that these intrusive and punitive measures are ineffective. In this situation, these measures can damage trust between students and school personnel and can undermine teaching and learning activities. Yet, Los Angeles continues to be one of the very few districts left in the nation that upholds such policies in their schools. The U.S. Departments of Justice and Education recommend against such punitive approaches to school security in favor of creating schools “where students and staff are empowered to demonstrate positive, caring, and restorative approaches to improving school climate and discipline.”

The implementation of the Random Metal Detector Search Policy perpetuates a feeling of hopelessness for students. The schools tell students that the staff are there to help them learn, become the best people they can be, and achieve their personal goals, which we hope are aligned with improving the world around us. However, when staff are forced to treat students like potential suspects in criminal activity, this denigrates and demoralize them in front of their peers. It creates fear within the entire student body which becomes a distraction and impediment to positive and peaceful learning goals.

In addition, random metal detector searches normalize the LAPD’s “stop and frisk” policy; initiating and continuing a parallel policy in the schools tacitly endorses this practice on the streets and neighborhoods. It is worth noting that in New York City, the NYPD’s “stop and frisk” policy similarly targeted people of color in an effort to “prevent” crime. Not only did the courts rule this unconstitutional, but it was also shown to have no impact on reducing crime. It only served as a mechanism to detain and harass people of color and confiscate their belongings. In the same way, random school searches infringe on the rights of students and result in confiscation of their property. Ipods, hair brushes, sandwiches, highlighters, and nail polish are examples of items deemed a threat by school police.

This issue is a concern for the community at-large who are committed to a healthy educational environment for students in LAUSD. In the words of activist and actor Matt McGorry:

Over the last year, I have had the great honor of getting to know a number of the students involved in fighting against these racist and ineffective policies. These intelligent and courageous youth are the leaders that will continue to work for and create a better city, state, and country as they continue to grow. How, in good conscience, can we call this City a beacon of progress, if we refuse to treat the lives and minds of these brave leaders with basic dignity? How would we feel if it was our own children that were being harassed and deterred from learning and feelings of safety in their schools? In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “There comes a time when silence is betrayal.” That time has passed. Please do the right thing and eliminate this ineffective and discriminatory policy once and for all.

We call on LAUSD to unequivocally reject and discontinue the Random Metal Detector Search Policy.

Steps you can take to support the Students Not Suspects campaign:

1. Please read and share widely this article about the #StudentsNotSuspects movement: http://www.laweekly.com/news/should-lausd-students-be-subjected-to-random-searches-8795135
2. Please sign the petition to end random searches in LAUSD schools: https://action.aclu.org/secure/students-not-suspects
3. Please donate to the Students Not Suspects campaign and help to expand organizing efforts to other schools: storyproject.org
4. Follow Students Not Suspects on Instagram: @studentsnotsuspects

WP4BL statement on Transgender Day of Remembrance

On Transgender Day of Remembrance, we mourn and honor the lives of transgender and gender-nonconforming people who have been murdered this year in the United States. As we remember, we also acknowledge that a combination of anti-trans bias and racism leads to trans people of color experiencing particularly harmful levels of discrimination and violence. Discrimination and violence against transgender and gender-nonconforming people is not only perpetrated by individuals, but also by the state.

The statistics are staggering:

• According to the National Anti-Violence Project, 64% of all LGBTQ murder victims in the United States during 2016 were Black.

• 54% of all LGBTQ murder victims were trans women of color.

• According to the 2011 National Transgender Discrimination Survey, US trans people were nearly four times as likely to be living in extreme poverty, with Black trans people more than eight times as likely as the general U.S. population to be living in extreme poverty.

• 47% of all Black trans people have been incarcerated at some point.

As white people, we can take action by:

• Unlearning our own racism and committing to educating ourselves on the intersection of white supremacy and patriarchy, systems which sustain the hostile conditions that put trans women of color, and Black trans women specifically, at increased risk for violence.

• Getting involved in anti-racist action by finding local racial justice groups, and ensuring that our actions support Black trans lives.

• Financially supporting organizations led by trans women of color.

• Engaging other white people in conversation about how the freedom of trans people, especially Black trans women, is critical to the formation of peaceful, just communities.

We echo the demand of the Movement for Black Lives to end the war on Black trans, queer, and gender-nonconforming people, including through policies that perpetuate discrimination and harassment in education, employment, policing, prisons, health care, housing, and more.

#blacktranslivesmatter

Los Angeles Mayor Protects Police Chief, Community Demands: #FireBeck

White People 4 Black Lives is in solidarity with Black Lives Matter Los Angeles’ call to #FireBeck. Los Angeles Police Chief, Charlie Beck, has reigned over LAPD since 2009. In that time, he continued the oversight of policies and practices that led to police killing Angelenos with impunity. In addition to overseeing the most murderous police force in the country, under the watchful eye of Charlie Beck, a recent scandal came to light within the LAPD cadet program that included several police officers, stolen police vehicles, and statutory rape. Not surprisingly, the Chief stood in front of cameras for the photo op, condemning the unlawful actions of his police officers. In that moment, Chief Beck had the opportunity to do right by Angelenos to hold himself personally responsible for the practices of the LAPD. In light of the latest fiasco, Los Angeles residents must consider the following question: Are corrupt and violent officers ‘bad apples’ or a product of a police culture where cop frequently violate our civil rights while receiving protection from their superiors?

Looking at the LAPD’s recent record, it is clear that Chief Beck has perpetuated the culture of impunity that Los Angeles law enforcement has been notorious for since its inception. Chief Beck went on the record saying he will “protect” police officers like the “vests that they wear.” This protection almost always extends to cops who trample on our civil rights, abuse and kill Black and Brown Angelenos, and purjor themselves to cover up their tracks. LAPD officer are so well protected that from 2012-2014, not a single racial profiling complaint out of 1,356 led to disciplinary action for the officers involved. These send a clear and powerful message to officers and the community at large: criminal behavior is condoned and perpetuated by this Police Chief.

Chief Beck’s culture of impunity and police overreach extend to all facets of community engagement. Countless examples exist to support his failure to conduct an accountable and transparent department. In the past, the Police Protective League, the union representing the majority of LAPD, took Chief Beck to court, claiming he had a "corrupting influence" on the disciplinary process. Before the Police Commission investigates instances of potential misconduct that includes excessive use of force, Beck makes his own ruling on the force used. This puts pressure on the Commission to find the officers in policy regardless of the information they receive that could otherwise discipline the officer. This undermines the authority of the Board. Beck permits his department to withhold footage, edit videos, and turn off the recording equipment before interactions without any punishment. He has said he has "no plans to release video footage" from dash cams and body cams to the public. Additionally, twenty-two minutes of the surveillance tapes of Wakiesha Wilson’s death (while in police custody) are missing and Chief Beck has done nothing to address this. He has expressed openly and publicly that “the vast majority of the time” he sides with police, “regardless of public opinion.” It is clear through his actions and his words, he protects police officers from accountability in all possible ways at the expense of Angelenos most targeted by his police force. Meanwhile, community members continue to attend Police Commission meetings and are subject to arrest, including an 81 year old man--who spoke for 10 seconds during public comment and was arrested in front of Chief Beck.

Not only does Charlie Beck's irresponsibility lead to the murder of Black and Brown Angelenos, but those murders also cost the city of Los Angeles millions of dollars to settle the many civil lawsuits against the LAPD. The LA City Council projects the city will have to pay out $135 million in 2017 to settle litigation brought by grieving families, disability-rights groups and people wrongfully convicted of crimes. In order to do so, the City will have to borrow $70 million to avoid dipping into its emergency fund.

This toxic culture must end, starting with accountability. Los Angeles must turn the page on Charlie Beck’s failed leadership. Mayor Eric Garcetti must #FireBeck and demonstrate that he will not tolerate an LAPD ranked as the most murderous law enforcement agency in the country. Together, the people of Los Angeles must shatter the blue shield that protects police corruption and violence and undermines our collective pursuit of safety and justice.

Take Action! Call Mayor Garcetti's Office (213-978-0600) and demand he #FireBeck because of Chief Charlie Beck's failure to hold violent, corrupt, and killer cops accountable. Call daily, it only takes a few seconds.

Black Lives Matter Los Angeles local demands:

1. Fire Chief Beck for his refusal to hold LAPD officers accountable.

2. Work in partnership with the Los Angeles City Council to develop a reparations strategy.

3. Hold Police Commission meetings that are open, accessible, and at night - a time when working people can attend.

4. Appoint real community advocates to key commission seats.

5. Adhere to the agreed upon Town Hall meeting structure with Black community negotiated in July 2015.

#WhitesAgainstTrump

#WhitesAgainstTrump: Following Up, Following Through, and a Call To Action

For many white people, November 9th 2016 marked a turning point in their view of America’s trajectory of human rights progress. However, for Americans of color in particular, this trajectory was never taken for granted and the election of Donald Trump was, in many ways, anything but a surprise. Since election day, countless opinion pieces have been written attempting to understand why and how Donald Trump, with his message of populism and white nationalism, captured the hearts of so many voters. While many feel despair and fear at the uncertain course ahead, there is also reason for hope and, most importantly, the requirement for action. Among the many valuable analyses offered, why do we choose to continue to focus on racial justice, and why is anti-racist white organizing an important tool in the Trump America?

Prior to the election, a network of dedicated white anti-racist activists across the country tried to prevent the reality of a Trump presidency. These efforts failed. If we are going to be effective in bringing about a more just and equitable society, quite simply more white people need to step into anti-racist action in this country. The role of white people is not that of “savior” but rather to recognize that we, as white people, also suffer under the current white supremacist system, and we too, need to be freed. While white people are profound beneficiaries of white supremacy, there is also a moral and psychological toll exacted through generations of the perpetration of dehumanizing violence and the breakdown of empathy. Of course, it is also in the self-interest of white people to be able to work effectively in multiethnic coalitions, to not be pitted against people of color to fight over scarce resources, which sabotages unity in demand for better wages, clean air and water, access to good education, housing and healthcare. White anti-racism efforts serve to recognize, repair, and reclaim a new way of being white in the world that rejects white supremacy and works to dismantle it. We work in concert with people of color so that we may all be liberated from the oppression of violence, injustice, scarcity of resources, and the failures of human empathy that we see around us. Not in more than a generation has it been so clear to wide swaths of the American citizenry that their liberation is at stake.The great indigenous activist, Lilla Watson, famously said, “if you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come here because your liberation is bound up with mine, let us work together.”

White People 4 Black Lives emerged in Los Angeles in 2014 as a white, anti-racist activist collective. We were responding to the explosion of anti-Black violence nationally, and the failure of our “criminal justice system” to redress its own endemic racism. Our immediate desires were to support the Movement for Black Lives, the L.A. chapter of Black Lives Matter, and to “call in” other white people to help end white supremacy and all manifestations of institutionalized racism. Soon after, we affiliated with national SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice), which had organized in 2009 to address the anti-Black backlash and rise in visible racist attacks following the election of Barack Obama. We have work to do and the uphill battle will be steep. We are calling upon our fellow white people of conscience who may be questioning the status quo, wondering how we got to a Trump presidency, feeling motivated to take action but hesitating out of fear of getting it wrong or having no idea what to do in this crucial moment in time.

To white folks who have been activated by a Trump presidency and looking for what to do, here are a few suggestions:

• Read and Learn: Due to the whitewashing of American history in schools, and politicians who push a color-blind agenda, race is often never discussed in white homes or communities. It’s no wonder, then, that white people so often struggle for adequate understanding, context, and vocabulary to describe the various forms of racism and their impacts on individuals and society. It is important for us as white folks to commit to self education; we don’t want to put the burden of this work on people of color. It’s not their responsibility to carry us through our anti-racist education process. There are many great works by people of color as well as white anti-racists to draw from. A great tool is the Black Lives Matter Syllabus, but don’t stop there.

• Be mindful of language: Many Facebook posts following Trump’s election were filled with statements of shock and dismay, particularly from white people, many of whom were seemingly unaware of how pervasive white racist sentiment still is in this country. During the campaign it was easy enough for us with white skin privilege to dismiss Trump’s followers as “fringe,” while people of color were warning that white supremacy is indeed a real and viable political strategy and still infests the hearts and minds of enough white people to get him elected. We must be mindful of the language we use on social media and elsewhere; our shock as white people only serves to discount and minimize the lived experiences of the most marginalized. There are many thoughtful pieces circulating from people of color who want white folks to move from “shock” into action.

• Find an existing organization and get involved: There are many white folks who are newly engaged and activated because of a Trump presidency, and this is wonderful. Unfortunately, though, racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, and islamophobia were problems in America long before Trump’s candidacy. Fortunately, amazing networks, organizations and individuals already exist with years and decades of experience working for social justice and human rights. Before trying to reinvent the wheel, check if there’s a local group already doing the work that speaks to you. Chances are they can use more hands and resources; your time may be best utilized supporting an organization that’s been around awhile. You can find local white anti-racist chapters across the country here.

• If you can’t find an organization in your area, start one: There are many places in the U.S. that still lack infrastructure for anti-racist organizing. Those areas will need some heavy lifting when it comes to transforming hearts, minds, and institutions. Starting from the ground up is hard, but rewarding. There are toolkits for starting your own chapter here.

There’s value in remembering that there are many justice advocates who have been working for decades during more and less hospitable Presidential administrations. State oppression is, perhaps, an existential given of modern life. We are in a period of renewed visibility of the oppressive structures and it may get worse before it gets better. History serves both as a caution and as an inspiration.

Finally, we have reason for optimism and hope. Current social, economic, environmental, and racial justice movements are alive and well. They are also intersecting with each other, supporting one another, and working together in ways that previous issue-oriented movements did not. Based on this, we envision the potential for a mass movement broader and deeper than even the Civil Rights, Anti-Vietnam War, and Women’s Movements. White anti-racism is a key ingredient to a mass movement. Demographics alone require meaningful and substantial white participation in large-scale social movements if we want to see real change.

White People 4 Black Lives (WP4BL) is a white anti-racist collective and activist project of the Alliance of White Anti-Racists Everywhere (AWARE-LA) and operates within a national network of white anti-racists called Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ). WP4BL is rooted in acting in solidarity with Black Lives Matter: Los Angeles locally, and the Movement for Black Lives nationally. If you are in Los Angeles and would like to get involved, send an email to whitepeople4racialjustice "at" gmail.com