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Archive for month: June, 2020

My Black Immigrant Life

By Seydi Sarr   |  June 24, 2020
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I am a Black Immigrant Muslim woman in Detroit. Every morning I wake up and check which part of my identity is being targeted. Will I wear my “Black Lives Matter” t-shirt for someone Black killed today? Will I wear my “Immigration is a Black Issue” t-shirt for someone deported? Will I advocate for access to healthcare to remember that I have a body and a voice? Will I speak out as a Muslim when my Muslim people are dehumanized and banned? These are the questions and choices that I face, and that my Black immigrant communities face, in a pandemic fueled by anti-Black racism and COVID-19.

As Black immigrants we know that our skin color can get us killed, choked, and mistreated. Police brutality extends to Black immigrants who have been killed in the hands of police, but many people don’t hear about these cases, like the police murder of Mohamed Bah in 2012 or Mubarak Suleimane this year. 

Mirroring patterns of anti-Blackness in all US systems, Black immigrants represent only 7.2% of the non-citizen population in the U.S, but make up 20.3% of those detained and deported. We’re hearing from RAICES that at the Karnes Detention Center in South Texas about 1/3 of the families brought there in the last 6 months have been Haitians. Here in Detroit we have scrambled over and over to raise money — $15k, $30k — for members of our Black community stuck in detention. This led us to launch the Black Immigrant Bail Fund in collaboration with the Haitian Bridge Alliance to help get Black migrants out of detention centers.

As Black immigrants we have taken care of each other to somehow survive through the past four months of pandemic. While most of our community members have lost their jobs, our rent has still been due, and our electrical bills. After months of late payment notices we know that many will receive vacate or formal eviction notices in the coming weeks. I think of the family of Khatim Toure who was deported in 2018 after more than 23 years in the US, leaving his wife and two daughters and a son to rely on our community to help pay rent and put food on their table. With so few of us with steady income during shelter in place, and no access to state or federal support, we joined together to open a mutual aid fund through African Bureau for Immigration and Social Affairs (ABISA). Since we opened on March 26 we have fulfilled 153 requests for assistance with basic needs, distributing $45,000 in donations. Today we still have $27,000 in pending requests. For our Black immigrant community, the racially charged economic crisis of the pandemic is far from over.

I am a Black immigrant Muslim woman, and I am not alone. Black immigrant communities are organizers of bail funds and mutual aid networks. We are “Immigration is a Black Issue.” We are “Black Lives Matter.” 

Please visit these links to donate to the causes mentioned above: ABISA’s Mutual Aid Fund, Black Immigrant Bail Fund

Healing-Centered Revolution: Interview with Leslie Avant-Brown

By Julie Quiroz   |  June 22, 2020
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From COVID-19 to the Movement for Black Lives, this moment in human history is asking us — ready or not — to show up as the best of who we are. Many people are turning to friends and colleagues for peer support, as well as to coaches, such as Leslie Avant-Brown*, who describes herself as a queer Black woman healing-centered coach. Let’s Talk caught up with Leslie to get her coaching lens on this movement moment, what we need, and where we’re going.

As a healing-centered coach, what are you hearing across the country right now?

I’m hearing over and over that this moment feels different. I’ve been especially struck to hear this from Black women elders, folks who were in Watts when it was burning, who were in Detroit in 1967. From them I hear almost excitement at the massive scale of this focus on racism. 

COVID-19 really accelerated the conversation about racism and about life and death. I’ve heard this moment described as a “double pandemic” and I think that’s right. We’ve been in one pandemic for 400 years, the other for a few months. In this moment, Black people are literally asking ourselves what’s the bigger risk: Do nothing and risk death by police? Or hit the streets demanding change and risk getting ill? We’re thinking, “Death by police or COVID-19?” 

Right now I hear a swirl of conversations happening “on the grapevine” with organic connections being discovered and silos coming apart. People are coming together and getting to talk beyond the three minutes we usually give ourselves in meetings. We’re realizing that we haven’t all been on the same page, that what we’ve meant by “transforming communities” may be very different. Some people are feeling resistant, dangerously resistant, to change and the pain it brings up.

I see a lot of people feeling wounded in the intentional conversations they’re coming into. This wounding, along with past wounds, is what people are bringing to coaching sessions these days.

What’s coming up for people?

People are sensing that this is a moment of profound transformation, a moment that requires us to reconsider everything. At the same time, we know that we need to keep going even as we do this deep examination of ourselves, our relationships, and our formations. People are moving into deeper community, but they don’t have pauses built in as they are doing that. 

People haven’t had space to do these deeper levels of examination. Many are ending up retracing trauma triggers — and they’re trying to do it alone. People are coming into coaching exhausted.

What’s your approach?

My mantra is “pause, ground, align, act.” I believe that’s how we will fuel the revolution.

I invite people to ground in intention, to reflect deeply on what’s important. I ask them, “What do you need?” and invite them to re-align from that internal compass. I invite people into aligned action that isn’t just acting by any means necessary. It’s recognizing that healing needs to be built in, that action will take more time because of that. I remind people that energy is precious, that energy flows, or doesn’t flow, from alignment in our mind, body, spirit.

Coaching is basically a strategy to support folks to slow down, to pause, to move beyond “busy.” Giving ourselves permission for that is that hardest part because we need to step out of White supremacy, of “urgency” culture. Most of us have never been given permission to take that pause.

Isn’t pausing difficult in this extraordinary moment?

I think we need to reimagine the pause. The reality is that we can’t do a full stop. But we can do moments of complete stillness, even if it’s just 10 minutes a day. We need ritual, practice, ceremony, no matter how small.

I remind people that their pause doesn’t need to be something new. It’s more a return to our practices and rituals of slowing down. For me it was a return to gardening.

What shaped how you do your work?

I went into coaching a decade ago when I realized that the leadership development and capacity building work I was doing was steeped in White supremacy. I was “the Black woman” in a White-led organization. I was bamboozled into thinking that what I was doing would work. Then I realized that it was never going to work.

I came into coaching as people of color were transforming coaching. Coaching had grown out of corporate America and was very achievement centered, very centered in White culture. Coaches didn’t want to think about “healing.” But as more people of color began coaching people of color, there was less willingness to just skip over trauma, to ignore how racial trauma was shaping people’s work.

What will we see as more people practice a pause?

I think we’ll start noticing each other saying “no” more. I think we’ll be traveling less, even after COVID.

I think we’re understanding that there are pain points that we haven’t solved with “strategy.” So our strategies will start to allow space for the pause, allow us to find the wisdom that’s there in us and in our communities.

How do you see yourself in this moment?

I see myself transforming the pain, the legacy, and the story of my people, calling in transformation for the world.

I see myself being tender with myself and with my ancestors who are showing up for me every day right now. And I see myself being tender with my descendants, remembering that what I am doing today needs to feed and nourish our future.

 

*Leslie Avant-Brown serves as CEO at her firm Blooming Willow Coaching, a culturally relevant, Healing Centered Coaching practice that allows her to partner with individuals, organizations and businesses. Her specialization areas include “all things” coaching including:  one-on-one and group coaching, coaching facilitation, coach training, and designing sustainable coaching models that support growth and healing in communities. 

 

Remembering Love Letters on Juneteenth

By Trina Greene Brown   |  June 19, 2020
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Today we celebrate the 155th anniversary of Juneteenth in Black Love with Black families!  

Today I am reminded of two love letters.

First, I remember that Black Lives Matter began as a love letter. As Alicia Garza shared in her 2016 talk with students at University of Richmond, Black Lives Matter “began as a ‘love letter’ to Black people” that she wrote and shared on Facebook after Trayvon Martin’s murderer was aquitted. As Garza explains, Black Lives Matter was a love letter to affirm we are deserving “Of life. Of deserving to live and not live in fear of being killed based on the color of your skin.”

I also remember that one of my deepest moments as a parent began with a love letter. 2016 was the year that I began Parenting for Liberation, a virtual community that connects, inspires, and uplifts Black folks as they navigate and negotiate raising Black children within the social and political context of the US. Like Garza, I began the journey with a love letter to my son, paying homage to James Baldwin’s letter to his nephew in his book, The Fire Next Time. Harkening Baldwin’s struggle to both uplift his nephew’s strong spirit while simultaneously trying to keep him safe as a Black boy in America, I made a commitment to move through my fear to practice liberation in my relationship with my children. 

As I began the journey for liberated parenting, I came to another amazing queer writer who was friends with Baldwin, Audre Lorde, who wrote about her role as Black queer mother raising Black children. Lorde writes, “Raising Black children in the mouth of a racist, sexist, suicidal dragon, is perilous and chancy. If they cannot love and resist at the same time, they probably will not survive.” Lorde’s quote has informed my work of liberated parenting, a parenting philosophy that is rooted in both love and resistance, in loving my children while cultivating within them a deep-rooted self love and resistance to any and everything that comes up against that inherent sense of love. The lessons on love are rooted in loving their Blackness, affirming their skin, their hair, their culture. Being unapologetically Black. The lessons on resistance are rooted in the historical and present freedom fighters who resist, challenge, and dismantle systems of oppression to remind them of their voice, their power, their agency, their resilience. 

Today is Juneteenth, a day in which we honor the liberation of Black communities from enslavement in 1865. Though Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation took place in January 1863, it wasn’t until two and a half years later on June 19, 1965 that union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas to spread the news that the war had ended and Black people were now free. 

This celebration of liberation, 2.5 years after the fact, reminds me that Black folks have always had to fight for freedom and that freedom has always come with obstacles and delays. Yet and still, Black folks have always celebrated our resilience and strength as a people! 

Love & Resistance is what I will celebrate this Juneteenth, beginning with loving on Black folks. I am honored to participate as a wisdom keeper for 𝗔 𝗗𝗮𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗕𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗟𝗼𝘃𝗲: 𝗔 𝗖𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗼 𝗣𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲 hosted by Black Love Convergence. The purpose of the gathering is for Black folks to fall deeper in love with Blackness! I am also launching my book, Parenting for Liberation: A Guide to Raising Black Children in conversation with Denene Milner, author of My Brown Baby. The work I do with Parenting for Liberation is rooted in an Afro-futuristic vision of a world where Black parents are in community with each other to raise Black children with love & resistance. Join me.

 

Photo Credit: TC Davis

On Juneteenth I Want to Be a Happy Black Woman

By Tammy Johnson   |  June 18, 2020
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On Juneteenth we remember how news of Emancipation did not reach our people in Galveston, TX until 2 1/2 years after it happened. It took 2 1/2 years for our people to find out. The story of Juneteenth is especially important now, because too many of us are still waiting to be free.

In this historic moment of 2020 we cannot wait to be free.

It’s important for us to push for policy changes and for education on anti-Blackness, structural racism, and colorblindness. But what’s even more important, especially for Black people, is to live and be free right now, in this moment.

Bob Marley sings, “Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery.” These words speak to my own purpose: to be a happy Black woman as I live my life right now. To live my life with a sense of liberty is an act of resistance in itself. And it’s especially important today.

Yes, we must demand, fight for, and attain our freedom through organizing and policy change. But that work will, and has, come up short because we haven’t freed ourselves. The reason there’s reform instead of revolution is oftentimes because we haven’t emancipated ourselves from mental slavery.

If we can’t envision a world without a police department we’re still in bondage. Mental slavery still has us.

If we can’t envision a world where people care for each other… can’t envision the idea of someone sitting in their car with a medical emergency and others inquiring to care rather than to punish… can’t imagine living in a world where Black people can go to the park and look at birds… can’t imagine a world where people can be in their own home playing video games without intrusion of the heavy hand of brutality from our own government… can’t…

If we can’t envision these things then we haven’t freed ourselves.

As activists and advocates we think a lot about freeing our communities, freeing people we work on behalf of. But often we haven’t done our own liberatory work. So I’m asking what that liberatory work looks like, not tomorrow, not 5 or 10 years from now, but today.

For me what that looks like is rest. It looks like the ability to say yes and to say no, without hesitation. It looks like fully engaging in things that I love such as art and dancing. It looks like having genuine real friendships and relationships, not just with friends and family, but with the people I’m hip-to-hip with in the struggle.

It means reimagining my city of Oakland, California, envisioning a strong community of Black folks who live without the pressure of policing, who are able to access vital health care and education, where children play in the park, where barbequeing in a park is not a protest.

This is part of my life’s work, to be free so we can get freer. If we haven’t done our work for ourselves, we can’t do that for others. It won’t work.

That’s what I’m thinking about today: How can I be free so that others can be free with me?

Because I can’t party all by myself.

Asian Families & Workers 4 Black Lives

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Like so many of us in the US and around the globe, I’ve spent many recent days and nights on the streets demanding an end to white supremacy and police brutality, the forces that so violently took George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and so many Black lives from us.. 

Over the last two weeks I’ve taken my daughters (age 8 and 12) to join with thousands of others to caravan, chalk, and chant in family direct actions standing up to Oakland, CA’s oppressive curfew and raising our voices to #DefundPolice and get police out of Oakland public schools. In each of these actions we feel in our hearts and bodies the powerful multiracial and multigenerational organizing of families that so many of us have so deeply nurtured year in and year out. I was so proud to be with my family in community with Rice and Beans Childcare Cooperative; Sama Sama Cooperative; Asians4BlackLives; and Black Organizing Project and so many more.

We are living in a movement moment that we’ve long prepared for. I feel incredibly proud and grateful to serve as the director of Bay Rising, a regional coalition of grassroots organizations that brings communities together for social justice and building long term power that positions Black, Indigenous, & people of color as the decision-makers for themselves and their own families.

I am also deeply proud to see our work with “Masks for the Movement” featured in MSC’s Vision Through COVID: Portals to the Future video series. Our video was filmed on zoom while my family and I were sheltering in place. It tells the story of Masks for the Movement, an urgent response effort that I created with immigrant workers in response to COVID and the widespread unemployment our communities face. The workers of Masks for the Movement made over 10,000 masks that generated nearly $40,000 in direct earnings to workers and $15,000 in revenues to the local businesses that provided supplies. Masks for the Movement also donated thousands of masks to front line workers doing deliveries and stocking groceries.

I believe that Masks for the Movement offers a glimpse of the future now, of a world liberated from white supremacy where the work we do today to make Black Lives Matter will ensure that our grandchildren’s children live in communities centered on making instead of consumption and on cooperation that grows abundance.

I hope you will take a moment to watch our video and all the powerful stories in the Vision Through COVID series.

See you in the streets and everywhere we need to be!

#DefundThePolice: 10 Days of Articles to Read & Share

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Led by the Movement for Black Lives, #DefundThePolice is a powerful mandate emerging from the nationwide uprisings spawned — this time — by the police murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and Tony McDade. #DefundThePolice tells the truth and demands structural change: No amount of “police reform” will stop the anti-Black racism that has continued to enable police murder of Black people. 

The historic decision by the Los Angeles City Council to cut $150 million from the police budget and reinvest in Black and other communities of color demonstrates the power of this moment. What Grace Lee Boggs called “a revolution in values” is underway where we can choose to divest from systems of white supremacy and invest in Black community wellness, leadership, and alternatives to policing. 

Below we have gathered a sample of the outpouring of articles that appeared in just a ten-day period, echoing the #DefundThePolice mandate in the streets. Please take a moment before reading to sign the MBL petition here: #DefundthePolice petition and to make direct donations to Black community led efforts such as those listed in this article.

#DefundThePolice Articles: May 28-June 7 

June 1 – June 7

Black Lives Matter Co-Founder Explains Defund The Police

How To Keep Our Children Safe: A Mother Explains Why We Must Defund Police (6/6)

Cities Ask If It’s Time to Defund the Police and Reimagine Public Safety (6/6)

What Does Defund the Police Mean: Rallying Cry Explained (6/6)

Police Do Not Belong In Our Schools: Students are Demanding an End to Campus Cops (6/5)

I’m a Minneapolis City Council Member: We Must Disband the Police — Here’s What Could Come Next (6/5)

“This is Huge”: Move to Defund Police Gains Support Nationwide (6/4)

Minneapolis City Council Members Consider Disbanding the Police (6/4)

Movement to Defund the Police: Unprecedented Support Across the US (6/4)

Police Unions and Civilian Deaths (6/4)

Defunding The Police Can Achieve ‘Real Accountability And Justice,’ Black Lives Matter Co-Founder Says (6/3)

How Much Do We Need The Police? (6/3)

May 28 – May 31

The Answer to Police Violence Is Not Reform It’s Defunding: Here’s Why (5/31)

Police Erupt in Violence Nationwide (5/31)

No More Money For the Police (5/30)

No More Cop Unions (5/29)

The Pandemic Is the Right Time to Defund the Police (5/28)

 

Photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mikijourdan/

The Other Epidemic We All Must Fight: White Supremacy

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MSC is proud to offer Jodeen Olguín-Tayler’s piece on white supremacy in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. Please scroll down to see each version.

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There has been no shortage of tests. Black people have been dying from racial inequality in health care, the school-to-prison pipeline, the disproportionate vulnerability to the coronavirus and suffering unequal economic impacts from the COVID-19 crisis. These are not accidents. These are all symptoms of another deadly illness. 

These violent symptoms point to an illness that has gripped this country since its birth and has been embedded into its very DNA. The murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and Tony McDade are painfully visible manifestations of this epidemic. This illness is around us — impacting us differently, yet none of us are free from it. For those of us who can’t ignore the symptoms, we need all people to see them as parts of the same sickness: White Supremacy.

What many of those protesting are asking is that we don’t ignore the sickness that choked George’s breath from his body, nor deny the illness that allowed three other officers to stand by  watching. We need action against the contagion released with the tweets of public officials escalating the violence. 

And, if you are angry at these actions, please also grieve about the silence of neighbors and family — because that, too, tests positive. 

As a Chicana woman, I’m painfully familiar with both the brutal racism enacted on my people, and with the policing of White identity that results in a more privileged position for those — like myself — who are People of Color with light-colored skin. This other type of policing is yet another force meant to divide us from each other. Which is why, when my tías and primos in New Mexico and my brother in São Paulo, Brasil, tell me that while a COVID-19 vaccine might save the lives of those with money and proximity to Whiteness, together we bear the suffocating experience that this, too, will be a resource kept from the Black and Brown majorities in our communities. 

I tested positive for COVID-19 in early March, and felt the panic that grips you when your lungs are starved from oxygen. I know, too, the fear for my Chicano-Korean son, as attacks on Asian-American communities escalate because of the racists who labeled coronavirus a “Chinese virus.”

As our Black sisters and brothers suffer on both the frontlines of police brutality, while bearing the refusal of health care systems to value Black lives, and an economic system built on the enslavement and elimination of Black and Brown bodies, we know there will be no vaccine for White Supremacy. And any inequitable and insufficient “fixes” to address these ills will keep the system of White Supremacy firmly in place, failing to transform and heal the systems that privilege White bodies and White lives.

There are no bystanders in this pandemic. While it privileges some, it infects all of us. And it will take all of us to transform. Which is why, on Monday, B Lab U.S. and Canada Co-CEO Anthea Kelsick called on this community of B Corp business leaders to join together to take anti-racist action in a number of important and powerful ways.

Anthea called on us to recognize that the solutions to the epidemics we are facing must be led by many. In order to be real solutions, they must align with structural reforms aimed at the transformation of the global economic system. In a recent virtual gathering of the global B Corp community, as well as at the #WeTheChange virtual summit and the January 2020 gathering of the Climate Collective here in the U.S. — the B Corp community engaged in important conversations about applying racial justice principles in any effort to take collective action that supports civic engagement and structural policy change.

As we build momentum for the many public policy changes that will be needed to address this epidemic, we can learn from the work of racial justice public policy organizations like Demos, the Haas Institute, and the Movement for Black Lives’ policy platform. These groups apply the principle of “targeted universalism” to their public policy development and design. Targeted universalism is the principle that in order to benefit all people, public policies must be designed and implemented in ways that improve the outcomes, lives and impacts on those who are most vulnerable and most impacted by any system. 

As this conversation in our global B Corp community unfolds over the coming days and weeks, I am so grateful for the leaderhsip of Anthea Kelsick who, in her powerful letter about the journey we must take to be anti-racist, shines light on a path of action we must take to move forward. While the global network of B Corps must certainly continue our leadership role in building a movement for economic systems change, changing the economic system requires we work alongside sister social movements to root out the sickness of White Supremacy, and stop the epidemic of anti-Black violence.

A vaccine for the coronavirus will not cure this other sickness. White Supremacy will continue to unleash violence against Black people and other People of Color, and continue infecting and diminishing the humanity of White people who remain complicit. We cannot support a return to a “great America” that never was. We — all of us — desperately need a new normal: one that enables a future where all our children are safe, where Black Lives matter and are celebrated, where we have an inclusive, equitable economy designed to meet human needs and ensure the dignity of all people. To get there, we must actively and urgently work toward the individual, organizational, societal and structural transformations necessary to ensure an equitable future for all people. 

About the Author:

Jodeen has put nearly two decades of her heart into leading cross-sector collaborations in  the racial and gender justice movements. She has deep experience with anti-racist public policy coalitions, including founding the Inclusive Democracy Project while a VP at Demos, serving as the Campaign Director for the National Domestic Workers’ Alliance, and Field Director with the Caring Across Generations campaign; as well as an enthusiastic member of Mijente — a Latinx & Chicanx organization — where she led the translation of the Vision for Black Lives policy agenda into Spanish. Jodeen currently leads the B Lab Global team’s development of strategic partnerships to advance programmatic initiatives and build infrastructure to drive economic systems-change. Jodeen serves on the board of Movement Strategy Center.

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La otra epidemia que debemos combatir: La supremacía blanca

por Jodeen Olguín-Tayler

El antirracismo debe guiar nuestro trabajo para impulsar políticas públicas que transformen al sistema económico que está construido sobre la violencia y la desigualdad.

 No ha habido una falta de pruebas. La gente negra ha estado muriendo debido a la desigualdad racial que existe en el sistema de  salud, debido a las vías directas que llevan de la escuela a la prisión, debido a su vulnerabilidad desproporcionada frente al coronavirus y debido a que sufren de manera desigual los impactos económicos de la crisis de la COVID-19. Esto no es un accidente. Todos estos factores son síntomas de otra enfermedad mortal.

Estos síntomas violentos manifiestan una enfermedad que ha estado controlando a este país desde su nacimiento y que está engranada en su mismo ADN. Los asesinatos de George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor y Tony McDade son manifestaciones dolorosas visibles de esta epidemia. Esta enfermedad está por todos lados a nuestro alrededor — nos impacta de manera diferente, pero nadie se libra de ella. Para quienes no podemos ignorar los síntomas, necesitamos que el resto del país se nos una y los vea como parte de una misma enfermedad: la supremacía blanca.

Para quienes no la sienten todos los días, les pedimos que no alejan la mirada de la enfermedad que ahogó el suspiro del cuerpo de George, ni de la enfermedad que le permitió a los agentes policiacos quedarse parados ahí cerca. Necesitamos actuar en contra del contagio desatado por los tweets de los funcionarios públicos que han hecho escalar la violencia. Y si sienten enojo debido a estas acciones, por favor también sientan dolor por el silencio de sus vecinos y familia – eso también es un test positivo.

Como mujer chicana estoy dolorosamente familiarizada tanto con el racismo brutal actuado sobre mi gente, como por la vigilancia de la identidad blanca que resulta en una posición más privilegiada para quienes, como yo, somos personas de color con un tono de piel más claro. Este otro tipo de vigilancia es otra fuerza más que intenta dividirnos, por ello, cuando mis tías y primos en Nuevo México, y mi hermano en Sao Paulo, Brasil, me dicen que la vacuna podrá salvar las vidas de quienes tengan dinero y proximidad con la blancura, juntos cargamos la experiencia sofocante de sospechar que este también será un recurso que no llegará a las mayorías negras y de color en nuestras comunidades. Como personas de color, estamos muy bien familiarizadas con las soluciones falsas que privilegian a la minoría por encima de la mayoría.

Mi prueba salio positiva de la COVID-19 a comienzos de marzo y sentí el pánico que invade todo tu ser cuando a tus pulmones no les llega suficiente oxígeno. Yo conozco, también, el miedo que siento por mi hijo chicano-coreano, puesto que los ataques en contra de las comunidades americano-asiáticas han escalado a causa de los y las racistas que etiquetaron al coronavirus como el “virus chino”.

Así como nuestras hermanas y hermanos negros sufren tanto en la primera línea de la brutalidad policiaca, como por la renuencia de los sistemas de salud a valorar las vidas negras en un sistema económico construido sobre la esclavitud de los cuerpos negros y de color, nosotros sabemos que no habrá una vacuna para la supremacía blanca. Y las “composturas” desiguales e insuficientes mantendrán al sistema de la supremacía blanca firmemente en su lugar y fracasarán en transformar y curar los sistemas que privilegian los cuerpos y vidas blancas.

No hay espectadores en esta pandemia: si bien privilegia a algunos, nos infecta a todos. Es necesario que todos y todas juntas transformemos al sistema económico. Esta es la razón por la cual, el lunes, Andrea Kelsick, la codirectora ejecutiva de B Lab EE.UU. y Canadá, hizo un llamado a esta comunidad a unirnos para llevar a cabo la acción antirracista en un número de formas importantes y poderosas.

Anthea nos llamó a reconocer que las soluciones a las epidemias que estamos enfrentando deben ser presididas por muchos y muchas. Para poder ser soluciones reales, estas deben alinearse con las reformas estructurales dirigidas hacia la transformación del sistema económico global. En una reciente reunión virtual de la comunidad global de Empresas B, así como en la cumbre virtual #WeTheChange y la reunión de enero de 2020 del Colectivo para el Clima, aquí en Estados Unidos, la comunidad de Empresas B participó en conversaciones interesantes acerca de cómo aplicar principios de justicia racial en cualquier esfuerzo de acción colectiva que soporte la participación cívica y el cambio estructural de las políticas públicas.

Al ir impulsando el  momento para lograr muchos de los cambios en políticas públicas que se necesitarán para abordar esta epidemia, podemos aprender de las organizaciones que trabajan en políticas públicas en materia de justicia racial, como Demos, Haas Institute y la coalición del Movimiento para la Vidas Negras para políticas públicas. Estos grupos aplican el principio de universalismo dirigido en el desarrollo y diseño de sus políticas públicas. El universalismo dirigido es el principio que dice que para poder beneficiar a todas las personas, las políticas públicas deben estar diseñadas e implementadas de forma que mejoren los resultados, vidas e impactos de quienes son más vulnerables y sienten el peor impacto de cualquiera de los sistemas.

Conforme se vaya desenvolviendo esta conversación en nuestra comunidad global de Empresas B en los siguientes días y semanas, estaré muy agradecida por el liderazgo de Anthela Kelsick, cuya carta enérgica que nos dice que el camino que tomemos debe ser antirracista, alumbra también el camino de acción que debemos tomar de aquí en adelante. Si bien la red global de Empresas Bciertamente debe continuar su liderazgo en la construcción de un movimiento para el cambio de los sistemas económicos, cambiar los sistemas económicos requiere que trabajemos junto a nuestros movimientos sociales hermanos para desenraizar la enfermedad de la supremacía blanca y parar la epidemia de la violencia antinegra.

Una vacuna para el coronavirus no curará esta otra enfermedad. La supremacía blanca seguirá desatando la violencia en contra de la gente negra y de color y seguirá infectando y disminuyendo la humanidad de las personas blancas que siguen siendo cómplices. No podemos apoyar el regreso a la “gran América” que nunca lo fue. Nosotros y nosotras, todos y todas, desesperadamente necesitamos una normalidad nueva…una que facilite un futuro en donde todos nuestros niños y niñas se sientan seguras, en donde las vidas negras importen y sean celebradas, en donde tengamos una economía inclusiva y equitativa diseñada para satisfacer las necesidades humanas y se asegure la dignidad de todas las personas. Para llegar ahí, tenemos que trabajar activamente y con urgencia para lograr las transformaciones individuales, organizativas, sociales y estructurales que son necesarias para asegurar un futuro equitativo para toda la gente.

Sobre la autora: 

Jodeen cuenta con cerca de dos décadas dirigiendo proyectos en los movimientos por la justicia racial y de género. Tiene una experiencia profunda en las coaliciones para las políticas públicas antirracistas e incluso fundó el Inclusive Democracy Project cuando fungió como vicepresidenta de Demos, también fungió como directora de campañas en la Alianza Nacional de Trabajadoras y Trabajadores Domésticos, y como directora de campo en la campaña Caring Across Generations; es también una miembro entusiasta de Mijente, una organización de latinxs y chicanxs, en donde dirigió  una esfuerzo colectivo para traducir al español la agenda de políticas de la Vision for Black Lives. En 2019, Jodeen se unió a B Lab Global, para dirigir el equipo global de B Lab para el desarrollo de colaboraciones para hacer avanzar las iniciativas programáticas y construir la infraestructura que propiciará el cambio de los sistemas económicos.

******

A outra epidemia que todos devemos combater: supremacia branca

O anti-racismo deve orientar nosso trabalho para avançar nas políticas públicas e transformar um sistema econômico construído com base na violência e na desigualdade

Não houve escassez de testes. Os negros estão morrendo em virtude da desigualdade racial nos cuidados de saúde, injustiças na sistema escolar, na prisão, na vulnerabilidade desproporcional gerada pelo coronavírus e sofrendo impactos econômicos desiguais da crise da COVID-19. Estes não são acidentes. Todos esses são sintomas de outra doença mortal.

Esses sintomas violentos apontam para uma doença que atinge este país desde o seu nascimento e foi incorporada ao seu próprio DNA. Os assassinatos de George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor e Tony McDade são manifestações dolorosamente visíveis dessa epidemia. Essa doença está à nossa volta – impactando-nos de maneira diferente, mas nenhum de nós está livre dela. Para os que não conseguem ignorar os sintomas, precisamos que todas as pessoas os vejam como partes da mesma doença: Supremacia Branca.

Para os que não sentem isso todos os dias, pedimos não desviem o olhar da doença que sufocou o fôlego de George no corpo dele, nem da doença que permitiu que outros três policiais o aguardassem. Precisamos de ações contra o contágio divulgado com os tweets de funcionários públicos aumentando a violência. E, se você estiver zangado com essas ações, lamente também o silêncio dos vizinhos e da família – isso também é positivo.

Como mulher chicana, estou dolorosamente familiarizada com o racismo brutal praticado em meu povo e com o policiamento da identidade branca, que resulta em uma posição mais privilegiada para aqueles – como eu – que são pessoas de cor com pele clara. Esse outro tipo de policiamento é mais uma força destinada a nos separar. É por isso que, quando minhas tias e primos no Novo México e meu irmão em São Paulo, Brasil, me dizem que, embora uma vacina contra a COVID-19 poderá salvar vidas de pessoas com dinheiro e proximidade com a branquitude juntos descobrimos a experiência sufocante que esse também será um recurso restrito às maiorias negras e pardas em nossas comunidades.

Eu testei positivo para COVID-19 no início de março e senti o pânico que toma conta de você quando seus pulmões ficam sem oxigênio. Também sei o medo do meu filho mexicano-coreano, à medida que os ataques às comunidades asiático-americanas aumentam por causa dos racistas que classificaram o coronavírus como “vírus chinês”.

Como nossas irmãs e irmãos negros sofrem com as duas linhas de frente da brutalidade policial, ao mesmo tempo em que sustentam a recusa dos sistemas de saúde em valorizar vidas negras, e um sistema econômico construído sobre a escravização e a eliminação de corpos negros e pardos, sabemos que não haverá vacina para a supremacia branca. E quaisquer “correções” injustas e insuficientes para lidar com esses males manterão firmemente o sistema da Supremacia Branca, falhando em transformar e curar os sistemas que privilegiam os corpos brancos e as vidas brancas.

Não há espectadores nesta pandemia. Embora privilegie alguns, infecta todos nós. E vai levar todos nós para transformar. É por isso que, na segunda-feira, a co-CEO da B Lab nos EUA e no Canadá, Anthea Kelsick, convocou essa comunidade de líderes empresariais da B Corp a se unirem para tomar medidas anti-racistas de várias maneiras importantes e poderosas.

Anthea nos pediu para reconhecer que as soluções para as epidemias que estamos enfrentando devem ser lideradas por muitos. Para serem soluções reais, eles devem se alinhar às reformas estruturais destinadas à transformação do sistema econômico global. Em uma recente reunião virtual da comunidade global da B Corp, bem como na cúpula virtual #WeTheChange e na reunião de janeiro de 2020 do Climate Collective aqui nos EUA – a comunidade da B Corp iniciou conversas importantes sobre a aplicação dos princípios da justiça racial em qualquer esforço para tomar uma ação coletiva que apoie o engajamento cívico e a mudança de política estrutural.

À medida que construímos impulso para as muitas mudanças de políticas públicas que serão necessárias para lidar com essa epidemia, podemos aprender com o trabalho de organizações de políticas públicas de justiça racial como Demos, o Instituto Haas e a plataforma de políticas do Movimento por Vidas Negras. Esses grupos aplicam o princípio do “universalismo direcionado” ao seu desenvolvimento e design de políticas públicas. O universalismo almejado é o princípio de que, para beneficiar todas as pessoas, as políticas públicas devem ser projetadas e implementadas de maneira a melhorar os resultados, vidas e impactos nas pessoas mais vulneráveis ​​e impactadas por qualquer sistema.

Ao passo que essa conversa em nossa comunidade global da B Corp se desenrola nos próximos dias e semanas, fico muito agradecido pela resposta de Anthea Kelsick que, em sua poderosa carta sobre a jornada que devemos seguir para sermos anti-racistas, dá luz a um caminho de ação que devemos tomar para avançar. Embora a rede global de B Corps deva certamente continuar nosso papel de liderança na construção de um movimento para a mudança dos sistemas econômicos, a mudança do sistema econômico exige que trabalhemos ao lado dos movimentos sociais associados para erradicar a doença da Supremacia Branca e parar a epidemia de violência anti-negra.

Uma vacina para o coronavírus não curará essa outra doença. A Supremacia Branca continuará a desencadear violência contra negros e outras pessoas de cor, e continuará infectando e diminuindo a humanidade dos brancos que continuam cúmplices. Não podemos apoiar o retorno a uma “grande América” que nunca existiu. Nós – todos nós – precisamos desesperadamente de um “novo normal” que permita um futuro em que todos os nossos filhos estejam seguros, onde as Vidas Negras sejam importantes e celebradas, onde tenhamos uma economia inclusiva e equitativa, projetada para atender às necessidades humanas e garantir a dignidade de todas as pessoas. Para chegar lá, precisamos trabalhar ativa e urgentemente em direção às transformações individuais, organizacionais, sociais e estruturais necessárias a fim de garantir um futuro equitativo para todas as pessoas.

Sobre a autora:

Jodeen Olguín-Tayler tem quase duas décadas liderando trabalhos nos movimentos de justiça racial e de gênero. Possui profunda experiência com coalizões de políticas públicas antirracistas, incluindo a fundação do Projeto Inclusão da Democracia enquanto vice-presidente da Demos, atuando como diretora de campanha da Aliança Nacional dos Trabalhadores Domésticos e diretora de campo da campanha Caring Across Generations; bem como um membro entusiasta da Mijente – uma organização da Latino & Chicano – onde liderou a tradução da agenda de políticas da Visão para vidas negras em espanhol.

Em 2019, Jodeen ingressou na B Lab Global – uma organização comprometida em construir um movimento para a mudança de sistemas econômicos. Jodeen dirige o equipamento global do B Lab para o projeto de colaboração do avanço  das iniciativas programáticas e construir a infraestrutura que permite a mudança dos sistemas econômicos.

 

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