Paul Kivel's Newsletter
Resources for Racial Justice
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A Note from Paul Winter 2016
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Dear People,
This weekend's Bay Area-wide powerful and creative outpouring of direct action, marches, vigils, disruptions, youth-centered and faith-based events was very exciting and encouraging. People were responding to the Anti Police Terror Project's call for #96Hours of Direct Action - Reclaiming King's Radical Legacy, declaring that we will not allow racism to remain glossed over and unchallenged.
In the larger picture, we are in the middle of a declining U.S. empire in a period of global recession, environmental collapse and militarism. The U.S. ruling class is using traditional tactics of demonization, surveillance and violence against immigrants, Muslims, Native Americans, African Americans, and others to solidify their power, distract our attention, undermine our communities, and destroy our values. Racism is complex and attacks people of color and Native Americans differently, calling for allies for racial justice to show up in specific and concrete ways to support the spontaneous and ongoing efforts by people of color and Native Americans to survive and thrive. This newsletter offers ways to understand and be involved in current struggles for racial justice, first addressing the recent intense rise in Islamophobia.
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Islamophobia
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On August 25, 2010, Ahmed H. Sharif, a taxi driver in New York, was attacked with a knife and slashed on the neck and face by Michael Enright. The attack occurred immediately after he had replied yes to his young white Christian passenger's question about whether he was a Muslim. After fleeing the taxi cab, Enright was quickly caught by the police and charged with attempted murder. The attack on Ahmed Sharif was not only a personal tragedy but, like all hate crimes, a reminder to the Muslim community that they are under siege, seen by many white Americans as outsiders, and thus, vulnerable to violence.
Islamophobia is a combination of religious, racial, and cultural oppression targeting the presence, dress, behavior, job and educational opportunities, and institutions of anyone perceived to be Muslim, Arab, or generally Middle-Eastern. As a result of long-standing patterns of Islamophobia, which have increased dramatically since the attack on the World Trade Center, Muslims and Islamic organizations are under attack on many fronts.
Read the full article here.
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On Both Sides of Atlantic, Muslims Organizing to 'Reject Dehumanization' by Sarah Lazare
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Sarah Lazare's article is a good primer to help think through structural anti-Muslim violence.
Amid
rising anti-Muslim attacks across the United States, many from within targeted communities are calling on U.S. society to address the root causes of this violence by examining deep and "structural" Islamophobia, manifested in modern U.S. history-from the War on Terror to the 2016 presidential race.
"For some of us, organizing and resisting against this system of anti-Muslim violence is survival," Darakshan Raja, co-founder of the
Muslim American Women's Policy Forum and program manager for the
Washington Peace Center, told
Common Dreams
. "It is emotionally exhausting and t
raumatizing to live in a world where a core part of our identity, Muslim, is consistently dehumanized."
Read the full article here.
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Suggestions for Getting Involved
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1. Oppose H.R. 158
H.R. 158 - The Visa Waiver Program Improvement Act is a piece of legislation on the federal level which imposes visa restrictions on travelers who visit any of several proscribed Muslim majority countries. "This bill amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to include terrorism risk as a factor the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shall consider under the electronic system for travel authorization (ESTA) in determining an alien's eligibility to travel to the United States." To read more click here.
2.
Engage
with Your Local Mosques
As anti-Muslim and Arab violence continue to ramp up, people who practice at mosques are at higher risk of violence. Go to your local mosque and be a friendly neighbour.
3. Organize Faith Leaders to write a Joint Letter
A useful tool in fighting Islamphobia has been when various different types of faith leaders join together to oppose anti-Muslim bigotry.
4. Create Kits for Allies to Respond to Islamophobia
One of the many ways that Islamophoobia reproduces itself is by our allowance of bigotted remarks and oppressive interpersonal dynamics. Learn about ways that you can intervene when you see Islamophobic remarks and create a tool fit for other allies. Here is an example.
5. Host a Multi-Faith Weekend to Dispel Anti-Muslim Misconceptions
Christian hegemony reproduces itself by claiming that Christianity is the master religion and is one of the major conduits of the rise of anti-Muslim violence. Host a multi-faith weekend of activities to bring people of different faiths together to respond and dispel growing anti-Muslim misconceptions. Here is an example.
6. If You See a Muslim Person Being Harassed -- Intervene
One way that cycles of violence continue is by never being interrupted. If you see someone who looks like they might identify as being Muslim being harassed, intervene by stopping and asking if they need support. If they do need support, say something against the person harassing them.
7. Be Friendly
If you ride public transportation, sit next to the hijabi woman and say asalam 'alaykum (That means 'peace to you.'). Don't worry about mispronouncing it; she won't care. Just say "peace" if you like. She'll smile; smile back. If you feel like it, start a conversation. If you don't, sit there and make sure no one harasses her.
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Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
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The Council on American-Islamic Relations
is America's largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. CAIR seeks to enhance understanding
of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.
To learn more about their work click here or to directly donate to CAIR click here.
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Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC)
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American-Arab Discrimination Committee (ADC) is a civil rights organization committed to defending the rights of people of Arab descent and promoting their rich cultural heritage. Today, ADC is the largest Arab American grassroots organizations in the U.S. and has over 25 chapters. The goals of ADC are to protect civil rights for Arab Americans, promote mutual understanding, and preserve Arab American cultural heritage.
To learn more about their work click here or to directly donate to ADC click here.
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Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC)
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To learn more about their work click
here or to directly donate to AROC click here.
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Islamic Society of North America (ISNA)
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seeks to be an exemplary and unifying Islamic force in North America that contributes to the betterment of Muslim communities. ISNA works to foster the development of the Muslim community, interfaith relations, and better understanding of Islam.
To learn more about their work click
here or to directly donate to ISNA click here.
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Part Two: Sogorea Te' Land Trust
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Sogorea Te' Land Trust -- Shuumi Land Tax
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The Sogorea Te' Land Trust
is an Indigenous woman-led community organization that facilitates the return of Chochenyo and Karkin Ohlone lands in the San Francisco Bay Area to Indigenous stewardship. Sogorea Te' Land Trust creates a space for all people living and working on Ohlone land to re-envision our collective future.
Sogorea Te' calls on us all to heal from the legacies of colonialism and genocide, to remember different ways of living, and to do the work that our ancestors and future generations are calling us to do.
The Shuumi Land Tax is an acknowledgement that there are currently non-Indigenous people living on stolen Indigenous land. Through generations of attempted genocide and systemic violence, the Ohlone people continue to resist the forces of colonization. The Ohlone people have no land base and are not federally recognized. Shuumi is for non-Indigenous people to make an annual contribution for this critical community work.The Ohlone people have experienced immense violence and trauma at the hands of settlers, the Shuumi Land Tax is a way of acknowledging that history and supporting healing towards a different future.
If you live on stolen Ohlone land, you can calculate your tax here or learn more about Sogorea Te' Land Trust here.
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Part Three: Resources for White People About Racism
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Showing up for Racial Justice (SURJ)
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Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) is a national network of groups and individuals organizing White people for racial justice. Through community organizing, mobilizing, and education, SURJ moves White people to act as part of multi-racial majority for justice with passion and accountability. SURJ envisions a society where we struggle together with love, for justice, human dignity and a sustainable world.
SURJ continues to show up all across the country in struggle and in solidarity with organizing against White supremacy and systemic racism. In New Orleans, SURJ, in collaboration with other community organizations, pushed the city council to approve taking down four statues of leaders of the Confederacy from the Civil War era. This organizing has supported other efforts on a national scale like the "Take It Down" campaign.
In Las Vegas, SURJ joined other community organizations to disrupt Donald Trump's appearance at the Republican presidential candidates debate.
Dozens of organizations, including SURJ Bay Area, staged events for #RememberTamir in November.
SURJ chapters in Chicago, Madison, Los Angeles and many rural areas continue to be actively involved in struggles to make Black, Brown, and Native American lives matter.
The SURJ website also has many resources to support organizing by White people against racism. You can download tools for creating chapters, campaign strategy, media support, leadership development, direct action and fundraising. There are also yard signs, SURJ statements, organizing toolkits for a variety of contexts, and resource for parents and teachers.
SURJ now has over 140 chapters and affiliates. Become a member now to support the crucial local and national work that SURJ is doing to educate, mobilize, and organize White people to Show Up for Racial Justice. SURJ also encourages you to match your donation with an equivalent (or larger) donation to a Black-led organization.
You can donate here.
You can also find a list of Black Lives Matter recommended Black-led groups here.
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Paul Kivel's Uprooting Racism
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Uprooting Racism: How White People Can Work for Racial Justice was updated, revised, and expanded in 2011 to reflect the changing ways that racism is playing out in the 21st century.
It discusses ongoing issues such as Islamophobia, immigration, land and housing issues, the criminal/legal system, healthcare, education, and foreign policy.
The new edition provides practical suggestions, tools, and examples, of how White people can intervene in interpersonal, organizational, and institutional situations and a completely updated series of questions, exercises and suggestions for action.
You can check out the table of contents here or learn more here.
Order it here and get a $5 discount.
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| Jamala Roger's Ferguson is America |
Ferguson is America answers the question "Why Ferguson?" In doing so, Rogers explores the roots of the Ferguson Rebellion and the growing movement to challenge racism in the streets, in police departments and in the courts. In examining Ferguson, Rogers leads us to an understanding of the state of Black America and towards forming a new national political agenda.
You can buy the book here.
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Chris Crass's The Other America
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Towards the 'Other America: Anti-Racist Resources for White People Taking Action for Black Lives Matter is a call to action to end White silence and a manual for how to do it. Crass provides essays, organizing advice, and lifts up longtime White anti-racist leaders. This book equips White people politically, spiritually, and emotionally to join the struggle create a world where Black lives truly matter.
You can read more here or download the book for free here.
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Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow
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The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
is an account of the caste-like system in the United States that has resulted in millions of African Americans locked behind bars. Alexander shows that
by examining racism and the current moment of mass incarceration, we can see that the Civil Rights Movement did not actually win rights for African Americans and that the conditions of oppression merely shifted their form.
The New Jim Crow
challenges us to center ending mass incarceration in our movements to end racial justice.
You can read more here or buy the book here.
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Bryan Stevenson's Just Mercy
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Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption is an account of an idealistic lawyer coming of age through his experience of defending the lives of poor, mostly Black people in the South wrongly condemned and trapped in the criminal-legal system.
You can read more or buy the book here.
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David Pilgrim's Understanding Jim Crow
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Understanding Jim Crow: Using Racist Memorabilia to Teach Tolerance and Promote Social Justice introduces readers to the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia. This museum presents a collection of more than ten thousand contemptible collectibles that are used to engage visitors in intense discussions race, race relations and racism. The book emphasizes the importance of acknowledging this ugly history to be able to understand its legacy and to support collective healing from this trauma.
You can buy the book here.
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CR 10's Publication Collective's
Abolition Now!
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Abolition Now describes the many different ways that prisons, jails, policing, surveillance and social control are used to uphold racist, classist, ableist, transmisogynist and violent systems of oppression. It is also call to action for abolition to be integrated into all fights for social justice through the strategy known as: "Dismantle, Change, Build."
You can buy the book here.
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Angela Davis's
Abolition Democracy
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Using prison abolition as a frame,
Abolition Democracy reveals the undermining of democracy through U.S. policies, laws of war and practices of torture and abuse like those in Abu Ghraib. Davis discusses her own incarceration, her experience as an "enemy of the state" and the FBI's "most wanted list" as well as the international organizing that support her and other political prisoner's release.
You can buy the book here.
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Ta-Nehisi Coates's
Between the World and Me
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Between the World and Me, written in the form of a letter from Coates to his son, eloquently describes his experiences growing up and living as a Black man in America and what that means for our society.
You can buy the book here.
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Curriculum for White Americans to Educate Themselves on Race and Racism -- from Ferguson to Charleston
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This useful resource, compiled by Jon Greenberg, lists articles for understanding Whiteness, White Privilege, micro-aggressions, racially conscious parenting, and the history of racial discrimination as well as suggestions for groups to join.
Read the full article here.
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Articles from Uprooting Racism
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The three articles posted below are excerpts from my book Uprooting Racism. Each article discusses how power and privilege operate in regards to race and racism. You can check out www.paulkivel.com for articles from Uprooting Racism and other related resources.
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Healthcare
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Excerpt from Uprooting Racism by Paul Kivel
The US healthcare system is so riddled with racism that tens of thousands of people of color die needlessly every year because of its inadequacies. Others are permanently disabled, live with remediable conditions, or suffer seriously inferior quality of life. The impact of race is felt in every area from basic accessibility to healthcare, through adequacy of coverage, treatments prescribed, prenatal care, cultural sensitivity of care, availability of specialized treatments and physical proximity to hospitals, to under-prescription of routine diagnostic tests and painkillers and over-prescription of amputations and sterilization. Former US Surgeon General David Satcher has labeled these disparities "institutionalized racism."
The cumulative impact is devastating to people of color. To give just one example for the African American community, which is the best documented, it is estimated that blacks suffer over 91,000
excess deaths
a year - that is 37% of all black deaths. Excess deaths are deaths from health conditions that are preventable or treatable and are therefore unnecessary or avoidable. In other words, all other factors being equal, 91,000 black people die each year because of racism. Because of this, African Americans have a life expectancy a four and a half years less than white Americans.
For parts of the Latino/a and Southeast Asian communities, life expectancy and healthcare status are equally low, and in many Native American communities they are even lower. Obviously not all the deaths of people of color are attributable to racism, but it is well documented that tens of thousands are.
Read the full article here.
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Allies, Collaborators and Agents
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Excerpt from Uprooting Racism by Paul Kivel
Every white person plays a role in either maintaining racism as a collaborator or agent, or challenging it as an ally. An ally takes an active, strategic role in confronting racism. A collaborator, on the other hand, is someone who follows the rules (which are set up to benefit white people), doesn't make waves and makes sure that people of color don't have the information and resources they need to move ahead. Collaborators don't have to be overtly racist (although some are) because the organizations or institutions around them maintain racism without their active contribution. They simply collude with the status quo rather than challenging it. A collaborator says, "I'm just doing my job, just getting by, just raising my family. Racism doesn't affect me." But they continue enjoying the benefits of being white and ignore the costs of racism.
In reality, most of us are agents - more actively complicit in perpetuating racism than collaborators.
Read the full article here.
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Separatism
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Excerpt from Uprooting Racism by Paul Kivel
Many white people become upset when people of color get together without us. In our workshops my colleagues and I sometimes separate people into racial groups. There are always white people who protest by saying, "I want to know what they have to say." "How can we deal with racism without people of color?" "How come they get their own group?" "I think their group will be more fun." "This is reverse racism."
Racism is divisive. Each of these responses reflects some of the pain and confusion of that divisiveness. Although being white - with all the benefits, costs and opportunities that entails - has heavily influenced our lives, it can be difficult to look around and identify with other white people and to recognize that we are in this together. We need to learn how to challenge and support each other.
Read the full article here.
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Part Four: Christian Hegemony -- A Book and a Blog
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Christian Hegemony -- A Blog and a Book
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 The foundations of racism in the West lie in capitalism and Christian Hegemony--intertwined systems promoting colonialism, genocide, free markets, manifest destiny and American exceptionalism. As many of you know, my most recent book Living in the
Shadow of the Cross: Understand and Resisting the Power and Privilege of Christian Hegemony discusses the many different ways that Christianity punishes the poor, criminalizes sexuality, rationalizes destruction of the environment, and contributes to our seemingly endless "war on terror." It emphasizes the power of people to build strong movements of resistance.
You
can find out more about the book
Check out my recent interview about Christian Hegemony on Everyone's Agnostic podcast. I start speaking at 12:15.
You can listen here
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The Christian Hegemony blog elaborates on many of the themes that the Christian Hegemony book covered. The blog covers topics such as:
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