Before COVID shook up our way of working, our SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice) committee had big plans to continue our doorbelling and outreach effort to say No New Jail! along with continuing our efforts to do direct support, financial and otherwise, to local groups led by people of color. Those efforts are heading online and we will be putting energy into supporting the work led by Smart Justice Spokane to get local people out of jail now! Stay tuned for updates about fundraising and other support for local groups. One way you can help now is by supporting the expanded Spokane Immigrant Rights Coalition fund, which is providing support to local undocumented folks and mixed-status households left out by the stimulus and other systems.
The other major part of our work is educating ourselves and each other so we are better prepared to dismantle white supremacy and structural racism at every level. We do that through a book group on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of the month at 5:30 PM, now hosted through Zoom. We just finished Robin Diangelo’s “White Fragility” and this Thursday, 4/23, we embark on our new book, “We Keep Us Safe: Building Secure, Just, and Inclusive Communities” by Zach Norris.
You can get your own copy of We Keep Us Safe on Kindle, Audible, or Nook at these links. If you want a hardcover copy, you can get a copy from PJALS here! New folks are always welcome to join and we move one chapter or small section at a time. The first meeting will cover the Introduction only. We hope you can also join us for a webinar with the author, Zach Norris, tonight! We are so excited to hear from Zach (virtually) in person as an introduction to our book group.
If you have questions about SURJ or want to get on our committee specific email list, please contact me at [email protected] or Shar at [email protected].