Micaela Watts
Tonya Reece, an organizer with SURJ facilitates a conversation with meeting attendees on what various forms of direct action against racism could look like. More than 150 were in attendance for SURJ’s largest meeting yet.
Last night, roughly 150 citizens gathered in the main sanctuary of First Congregational Church on Cooper to discuss how they, as white people, would streamline their collective outrage at the national and local trends of discrimination against people of color into action.
SURJ, or Showing Up for Racial Justice, is a national organization with a newly formed Memphis chapter. Their aim is simple, to take the burden of discussing complex issues around white supremacy off of black people. In doing so, they hope to facilitate conversation which ideally will result in unified political actions.
“We have a lot of people here who already have a pretty deep analysis around anti-racism already, but we absolutely welcome people who are brand new, and have a lot of questions,” said Allison Glass, an organizer with SURJ. “For people who have questions, we want to “call them in”, not “call them out”.
According to Glass, it’s a great thing when white people have questions about white supremacy and how to combat the overt and covert forms it manifests in. However, turning the the nearest black person you know for explanation, “well, that can be extremely hurtful. They have to do deal with that reality every day.”
The stated national goal of SURJ is to engage 3.5% of white people in racial justice. This can take on many different forms such as fundraising for black-lead racial justice organizations like Black Lives Matter.
“One of our main goals with SURJ, is to center black-lead anti-racist movements,” explained glass.
In the wake of Trump’s elections, hate crimes have seen a dramatic rise. Some experts have even said the numbers of reported hate crimes are surpassing those that took place in the days following 9/11.
“What we’ve seen in response since the election, shows that this work is needed now more than ever.”
SURJ will have a meeting at 6:00 p.m. tomorrow at 902 S. Cooper to discuss upcoming direct actions against racial violence.
