If you’re new to SURJ, a huge welcome from all of us.
In the past week, so much has happened. We are in the middle of an uprising.
Today, the New York State Senate reviews the bill to Repeal 50a, the police secrecy act. Yesterday, they passed the Police-STAT Act. The Minneapolis City Council committed to disbanding their police department and creating a transformative model for cultivating safety in the city. In New York City alone, hundreds of thousands of people have marched for liberation. Right now we are all holding rage and grief for continued state-sanctioned violence targeting Black lives; we are also holding love and hope for every person joining in the movement.
This week has shown how powerful action is. But unless we also dismantle the white supremacy we carry with us and around us, no policy change will ensure justice.
One of the key reasons we organize with white people is that rooting out our internalized white supremacy is a lifelong project requiring difficult emotional work, but it can’t be the centerpiece of our anti-racist efforts. Learning must be in support of action, not a substitute for it. Nor can we expect multiracial organizing spaces to help us with discomfort, shame, or the other negative feelings associated with this effort—there is more important work to be done in those spaces.
In SURJ, we can support each other in understanding and countering white supremacy in ourselves and in the world around us, while also showing up in multiracial spaces responsibly and sustainably.
The SURJ commitment to taking action in relationship with Black and POC-led organizations allows us to fight together for collective liberation, following and being held accountable to their movement leadership. Doing both kinds of work together—and calling more and more people to join us—is how we undermine large-scale white support for white supremacy and build real justice.
This model for organizing serves other purposes too. There are as many reasons to organize with white folks as there are white folks organizing together. Here are a few more from our members:
“For me, anti-racist action is also a spiritual path. In the process of our organizing, SURJ NYC is also a peer group where there is loving space for me to process the fear, shame, and despair which often come up when I try to put my anti-racist values into words and into practice.” - Tom
“I have 50 years of whiteness to understand and parse through. Cousins to collect. Family to work with to understand our privilege. My work is calling folks in so future generations don't repeat our mistakes. This is white people work for white people to do.” - Westlake
“New York State legislature is often divided by "Upstate vs. Downstate," which is just coded language for "white/rural vs. black/urban," and the passage of a law is often contingent on what people think of it "Upstate." As white people organizing alongside people of color to build the future we want to live in, we have a responsibility to move a critical mass of our fellow white people in order to build a multiracial majority with enough power to win electorally, legislatively, and beyond.” - Ryan
“My most useful skills are leadership skills. But as a white person, I feel clear that it’s not my place to lead in this movement. To dismantle white supremacist systems, we have to take the lead from the people who know what’s needed, and that’s the folks who most directly experience systemic, racist violence and harm. In SURJ, our partners tell us where white folks are most useful to them in order to win, and I use my skills to get as many white folks there as possible. That’s how my labor can have the biggest impact." -Grace
Whether SURJ turns out to be your long-term organizing home, or we just help you get what you need to do this work elsewhere, we’re glad you’re with us today, and we’re here to support you in moving into lifelong, multiracial action for racial justice. There’s a lot more to do.
In solidarity,
SURJ NYC