Tonight – Meeting – “Police and White Supremacy” Panel
Hosted by Showing Up for Racial Justice – SURJ Ventura County and TheLAB
Facebook link, 7 PM – 8:30 PM (see note below for new attendees),
11137 Azahar St, Ventura, California 93004
If this is your first SURJ VC meeting, they invite you to come at 6:30 pm for an orientation to their work and who they are.
We’ll hear from local organizers and leaders of color on how white supremacy and the police are interwoven. Our panelists will be Narissa Petchumrus, Linda Quiquivix, Vicente Torres, Leo Martinez. Tim Nafziger will moderate the panel.
Special thanks to Narissa Petchumrus for putting this panel together.
Security will be present and we reserve the right to turn away anyone deemed a potential threat to the safety of our guest including uniformed law enforcement.
Reading – Feb. 19th – Today is the Day of Remembrance marking the 77th anniversary of forced incarceration of Japanese Americans
77 years ago today, the President of the United States signed an order that led to the incarceration without due process of 120,000 Americans and immigrants of Japanese ancestry. Today, the Japanese American and allied communities mark February 19 as a Day of Remembrance.
Equal Justice Society (equaljusticesociety.org) is working with others on a “Stop Repeating History” public education campaign to connect the dots between the issues raised by Japanese American incarceration and U.S. immigration and border policies targeting Muslim and Latin American immigrants. Learn more here.
Reading – Alabama newspaper calls for Klan to “clean out D.C.”
The Petition from Color of Change is here but appears to be no longer be necessary. See “update” below.
(From Color of Change) The Democrat-Reporter, a newspaper in Linden, Alabama, recently published an editorial calling for the Ku Klux Klan “to night ride again” against lawmakers in Washington, D.C. who are “plotting to raise taxes in Alabama”. When confronted about this editorial, Goodloe Sutton, the paper’s publisher, admitted that he wrote it, doubled down on his idea to lynch federal lawmakers, and compared the KKK to the NAACP.
The Alabama Press Association, the trade association for newspapers in the state which The Democrat-Reporter is a member, has said that while they don’t agree with the editorial, they’re also “not a policing agency” and can’t control what their members publish. This is totally unacceptable and the Alabama Press Association must take immediate action by revoking the membership of The Democrat-Reporter.
More than 340 Black people were lynched in Alabama between 1877 and 1943 – a period of 66 years. To invoke the memory of such a horrific act in such a cavalier manner and to compare the KKK to the NAACP is more than insulting, it’s down right dangerous. At a time when white nationalism is on the rise and white supremacists are marching in the streets of cities like Charlottesville and Portland, OR, to have a newspaper openly long for the days of the original white supremacist terrorist organization in the U.S. is inexcusable.
This isn’t the first time Sutton and The Democrat-Reporter have been explicitly racist. In 2015 he ran a headline that said: “Selma black thugs murder Demopolite Saturday night.” This pattern of racist behavior can no longer be ignored. The Alabama Press Association can’t use “freedom of the press” as a shield to hide behind when we know that this kind of historical ignorance coupled with unabashed racism only leads to more physical violence towards Black people.”
Update: Petition is here, however, the APA found their backbones and confirmed to AL.com that it had voted to censure the editor, Goodloe Sutton, and also suspend the membership of The Democrat-Reporter, which printed the editorial on Feb. 14.
Feb. 26th – Webinar – “Understanding Antisemitism and its Intersections with White Supremacy & White Nationalism.”
Facebook link. Tuesday, February 26, 2019 at 5 PM – 7 PM EST, Register here.
Understanding Antisemitism and its Intersections with White Supremacy & White Nationalism
This webinar is aimed at strengthening our collective movements for liberation. Our goals are: 1) to enable people to recognize anti-semitism 2) learn how antisemitism intersects with white supremacy and white nationalism 3) develop a shared commitment to ending anti-semitism alongside all oppressions.
Sonia Alexander currently works as the Program Director/Community Organizer at the Center for Social Responsibility of the Manhattan JCC. She is a long time member leader at JFREJ, including work with the Antisemitism working group. She loves turning cement into gardens, going to the beach at all times of year, and reading out loud.
Talia Cooper is the donor organizer at the National Domestic Workers Alliance and a body liberation personal coach. She is the former executive director of Jewish Youth for Community Action (JYCA), where she led organizing work for young people. Talia also loves to write and sing folk music.
Sonia and Talia have led trainings about antisemitism and its intersections with race, class, white supremacy, & Islamophobia for a variety of communities over the years. They are also both founding members and leaders of Movementmatch.org.
INDIVISIBLE VENTURA 