Racial Justice News

The last four years in countering anti-Muslim bigotry has been quite a journey. We are so blessed that you have walked this journey with us!

• What is Sharia?
• Islam and Women’s Rights
• Islam and Peace
• Islam and Other Religions
• The Islamophobia Industry

For the past year, we have been working to create five animated videos in a three-minute format to address these questions. We are calling it the “Faith Over Fear Campaign.” You will see the videos, meet the animators and be encouraged by others working to counter hate and bigotry towards any group. Light refreshments will be provided.

When: Monday, February 10, 2020, 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM

Where:  Muslim Association of Puget Sound, 17550 NE 67th Ct, Redmond, WA 

Register Here:          Registration limited to 90 people

https://www.facebook.com/events/641805063226239/

Each year anti-Muslim hate groups spend over $30 million dollars to make people afraid of Islam and American Muslims. The websites, You Tube videos, books, white papers, lobbying, and media stars of these hate groups turn the hearts and minds of people against one another, paving the way for a more divided, fearful future. We don’t have to live in that future. Together we can build a future based on our shared values and vision for America! Yet Muslims and their allies are daily confronted with challenging questions by people captivated by fear, framed in ways that place them at a significant disadvantage. The Faith Over Fear four-hour Ally Training will give you tested strategies to use in response to these challenging questions - and the fears that underlie them.When: Saturday, February 1, 2020, 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM

Where: Trinity Lutheran Church, 6215 196th St SW, Lynnwood, WA https://www.facebook.com/events/547172202798126/

Register Here

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Crosscut by Margo Vansynghel / January 15, 2020 Edidi and Mase are not the only team with Pacific Northwest roots receiving the prestigious designation this year. Vashon Island-based artists and activists Beka Economopoulos and Jason Jones of The Natural History Museum also received a $100,000 grant. Along with collaborators from across the country, they plan to put natural history “on trial” in an interactive exhibit, The Supreme Court of Red Natural History, at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. . . . “As two Black trans people, to say, ‘We want to create this thing that is about the healing needs and spiritual needs of Black trans people’ meant that it also wasn't sexy to funders,” Mase says. At first, they feared the same would be true for their documentary, which will feature some of the book’s contributors. Given that so many of them are musicians, writers, poets, dancers, Mase and Edidi hope to incorporate the contributors’ art practices and the way these intersect with spiritual practices into the documentary. Read more here.

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A federal court threw out a permit Tuesday that the pipeline's owners needed to build a natural gas compressor station in Union Hill, a community founded by freed slaves after the Civil War. In doing so, the judges sided with the community and their lawyers, who argued that the compressor would disproportionately harm the health of the mostly African American residents who would live near the station, The Associated Press reported. The judges' decision marks the eighth time since May 2018 that a permit for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline has been tossed or suspended, according to the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), which represented Friends of Buckingham in the case. Read more here.

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For The Wild is an anthology of the Anthropocene; focused on land based protection, co-liberation and intersectional storytelling rooted in a paradigm shift from human supremacy towards deep ecology. This is a series of radio programs interviewing a number of activists and leaders on a variety of justice issues, most particular those of indigenous communities and the struggles to protect the Earth and its human and nature communities.  

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by Donald King, December 9, 2019 There’s little doubt that The Nehemiah Initiative faces an immense challenge combating the displacement of African Americans from central Seattle. When you drive through the Central District today, you see gentrification in its stark reality. New market-rate buildings line the intersections of 23rd Avenue and East Union Street, as well as 23rd and South Jackson Street. Rising property values and higher property taxes have forced the sale of what once were affordable, formerly redlined homes and businesses. The attractiveness of the Central District’s proximity to downtown, its grand housing stock and mature tree-lined streets have contributed to boosting pressure on Black families remaining in the neighborhood to sell. Read more here.

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A 2nd WTO event will take place on Saturday, Dec 7 and will feature a rally and workshops covering how trade injustice affects every aspect of social justice.  RSVP here, and find more info here! 

 The WTO+20 Event Schedule:

[Still pertinent . . . ] "Do Indians celebrate Thanksgiving?"

November ballots are arriving soon! Initiative 1000 was passed in the 2019 state legislative session as a way to return affirmative action measures to Washington State, bringing equity to employment, contracting, and education for women, veterans, small businesses, and people of color. Now the vote has been brought to the people, and we are asking folks to look for Referendum 88 and APPROVE I-1000. The language around Referendum 88 and I-1000 has been confusing over the past year, so we wanted to show you an example of the language in the ballot (as posted in "The Stand") so you can familiarize yourself with what it is asking: As it states in the second sentence, I-1000 helps "remedy discrimination...without the use of quotas or preferential treatment." It asks whether I-1000 should be approved or rejected. We hope you will stand for equity in our state by filling in "APPROVED" this November! Please contact us if you need further clarification on the language of the ballot or what I-1000 and affirmative action would mean for the marginalized in our state. For more information, see the WA Fairness website or Facebook page.

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This is an impressive article outlining a number of the issues involved with immigration.  A must read. No one knows how many veterans have been deported, least of all the government, which has never taken a full accounting. Barajas helped change that. The 42-year-old’s improbable journey, from decorated military veteran to deportee and eventual U.S. citizen, has raised important questions about what makes a citizen and what is owed to those who have served and are deported just the same. Read more here.

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Crosscut by Melissa Santos / September 11, 2019

The initiative relaxes Washington state’s 20-year ban on the use of affirmative action in government employment and contracting, as well as in admission to public colleges and universities. It does not allow race to be used as the sole factor in hiring or admissions decisions, however, and includes language banning the use of quotas.

The public vote on I-1000 will appear on the ballot this November as Referendum 88. If voters approve R-88, the affirmative-action policy will go into effect as the Legislature intended. If voters reject R-88, I-1000 will be overturned and not go into effect.

Read more here . . . 

When: Sunday, September 15, 2019, 6:30-8:30 p.m., Where:  Woodland Park Presbyterian Church, 225 N 70 St, Seattle - Near #5 bus. Karen Schneider will recount her experience with Project Pilgrimage in October 2017 as she visited historically significant sites in the Deep South from the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950's and 1960's. and met and travelled with  surviving "foot soldiers" from that era.  Project Pilgrimage builds interracial and intergenerational community in Washington and beyond by studying, understanding and gaining inspiration from transformational movements and individuals. All are welcome!  Free, an offering will be taken. Info 206-789-5565 or wwfor@wwfor.org

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Numerous news stories reporting recent distribution of white supremacist posters and literature / Facebook post, Sj Robson Posted on September 1, 2019 by Dena There have been some people in Whatcom County who have suggested that posters linked to the white supremacist group, Patriot Front, which were reportedly placed in Ferndale in late July, might just be a stunt or a false flag. However, there have been numerous news stories reporting on the distribution of similar white supremacist posters and literature having occurred in other cities across the country. Besides the posters seen in Ferndale, there was an August 22nd Bellingham Herald news article about Patriot Front posters having been placed in the Fairhaven shopping district in Bellingham which were reportedly seen on or around August 20, 2019. Read more here.

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I'm Reverend William J. Barber, II, of Repairers of the Breach, the Poor People's Campaign, and the Moral Mondays movement. And I am asking you to join me in this call to all the presidential candidates: All presidential candidates should unite for a massive, pro-voter, anti-racism rally in Greenville, NC—the city in which Trump supporters spread a bigoted, racist and xenophobic chant—to reject racism and regression, register voters, and demonstrate what an America committed to moving forward together looks like.

Sign Reverend Barber's petition

Much has been said and written about the political aspects of the Green New Deal. The substance of the Green New Deal has not gotten as much attention. House Resolution 109, introduced by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, lists the goals of the Green New Deal. These goals are captured into two broad categories, climate and economic. Under the economic tent are goals of the creation of millions of good, high paying jobs; providing unprecedented levels of prosperity Great places to begin these discussions on the goals and politics of the Green New Deal are our congregations and community groups. An excellent video to facilitate the discussion is “The Climate Crisis and the Green New Deal” by the Sanders Institute. It can be found here.

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Reprint from 2016 If we avoided people of other races, we could live in peace, the thinking went. Native Americans and Chinese were once expelled from the city; Japanese were interned during WWII. Blacks were clustered in the segregated Central District in Seattle and, along with Asians and Jews, were banned from many neighborhoods through covenants and redlining by lenders. Oregon officially banned blacks from moving to the state in its state constitution. We’re not unique in these problematic ways of dealing with race, but racism is baked into both the history and structure of our region. Cities like Seattle, which is 70 percent white, are that way in part by the intention of those who settled and built the city. Read more here.

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