Showing Up for Racial Justice

Showing Up for Racial Justice is a national network of groups and individuals organizing White people for racial justice. Through community organizing, mobilizing, and education, SURJ moves White people to act as part of a multi-racial majority for justice with passion and accountability. We work to connect people across the country while supporting and collaborating with local and national racial justice organizing efforts. SURJ provides a space to build relationships, skills and political analysis to act for change ^[1]

For the past six years, (circa 2009) white anti-racists from around the country have been building up a national network to engage and move white people towards racial justice action. Rooted in longstanding white anti-racist efforts and leadership, along with strong relationships with organizers and leaders of color, Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) has been building infrastructure, relationships, shared values, and membership to respond to the call from Black leaders and leaders of color to move white people into action. From the Arizona anti-immigration struggle in 2010, to the murder of Trayvon Martin, SURJ has been bringing national leadership to help give focus, energy, and effective to white anti-racist efforts. Since, Ferguson, SURJ has literally been surging with new members, new chapters, and a growing role of convening national calls to help inform, equip, and mobilize a massively expanding base of white people into racial justice action.

Open Letter to the Biden Campaign on “Unprepared”

Open Letter to the Biden Campaign on “Unprepared” was released May 12 2020.

":Our demands: The country’s greatest priority at this moment is to beat the COVID-19 crisis, and this requires embracing principles of antiracist solidarity and international cooperation. The Biden campaign can and should beat Trump and the GOP with a message centered on our real public health needs and the progressive values that are required to meet those needs. The “Unprepared” ad must be taken down, and all campaign messaging that fuels anti-Asian racism and China-bashing must end. We refuse to allow the Biden campaign to sacrifice our dignity in the name of political expediency."

Signatories included Showing Up for Racial Justice

SURJ electoral work

In 2020, SURJ has big plans to expand it's electoral work in majority-white communities. Join the national director of the Working Families Party, Maurice Mitchell for a discussion on the need for us to build a multi-racial working class populist movement, how elections fit into our broader fight for collective liberation, and how organizing poor and working white voters is an important piece of this work.

Maurice will be joined by SURJ's national director Erin Heaney who will unveil SURJ's plans to expand it's electoral work in 2020 alongside the Working Families Party. ^[2]

Shutting Down John Guandolo

Showing Up for Racial Justice was cited at FightBack! News^[3] as one of the groups who successfully intimidated venues to cancel events called "Threat of Islam to America".

"Earlier this week, anti-fascist groups from the Fox Valley and Green Bay led a phone blast campaign to the hotel where one of Guandolo's events was scheduled to take place. The announcement of confrontational protest in addition to phone calls pressured the venue to cancel the event, which was called, "Threat of Islam to America."

[...]

"Building on the Green Bay victory, activists in the Milwaukee area organized a call-in to a hotel in the Milwaukee suburb of Pewaukee. Area Islamic groups and individuals called the hotel, which is a popular wedding venue for Muslim families. Organizations such as the Milwaukee Coalition Against Trump, SDS, and Wisconsin Antifa networks spread the word online.

"In under 24 hours the Pewaukee venue announced that the event was no longer taking place. Worldview Weekend once again tweeted their response, saying "We have over $15,000 into conferences not counting mailing."

"In La Crosse, Wisconsin activists from the Interfaith Shoulder to Shoulder Network, and Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) were busy planning a mass rally and call-in for the last of three planned stops in Wisconsin. The venue, Onalaska Omni-Center, refused to cancel the event, citing the First Amendment. But activists in La Crosse and throughout the state continued to prepare for a demonstration.

SURJ - Bay Area Monthly Meeting (February 2016)

1714 Telegraph Ave. Oakland, CA Wednesday 10 February 2016, Organized by : SURJ - Oakland/SF Bay Area

This is the coordinating page for SURJ - Bay Area. Come here for info regarding our meetings and the mobilizations that we participate in.

Those indicating attendance on Wherevent included Josh Kalla, Rho Chazin Seidelman, David Broockman, Melanie Letendre, Honah Thompson, Jason Wallach, Peter Cerutti, Elena Gustafson, Colleen Klus, Hannah Desmond Warren, Luba Yusim, Tess Young, Nell Scott, Susan Hagstrom, Lyla Denburg, Whitney Walker.^[4]

SURJ Founders

The first National leaders of Showing Up for Racial Justice, were Sam Hamlin, Dara Silverman, Pam McMichael and Carla Wallace.^[5]

Staff

Showing Up for Racial Justice staff, as of 2015;^[6]

Leadership team

The Leadership Team (LT) is the programmatic and decision-making body of SURJ. This team is responsible for making decisions about the ongoing development, broad programmatic vision and fiscal oversight of SURJ.

Showing Up for Racial Justice leadership team, as of 2015;^[7]

Carla Wallace, Louisville SURJ
Pam McMichael, Highlander Research and Education Center
Meta Mendel-Reyes, Berea College, Board member, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth and Highlander Research and Education Center
JLove Calderon, JLove & M1 Productions
Sean O'Neill, CARW
Murphy Mitchell, SURJ Seattle
Jeff Ordower, MORE
Jessica Campbell, Rural Organizing Project
Sam Hamlin, former SURJ staff
Dara Silverman, SURJ staff

Accountability Council

The Accountability Council is designed to engage leaders of color who offer feedback and counsel on SURJ's strategy, organizing and political direction.

Showing Up for Racial Justice Accountability Council as of 2015;^[8]

Rev. Jennifer Bailey, Faith Matters Network
Bill Fletcher, Jr. , Author and Organizer
Rachel LaForest, Right to the City
Maurice Moe Mitchell, Blackbird/Ferguson Action
Denise Perry, BOLD - Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity
Bree Newsome, Ignite NC
Janis Roshuval, United Methodist Women Racial Justice Commission
James Rucker, Color of Change

Connectors

Our team of connectors are all people who use their platform - whether that is as an artist, speaker, author, organizer, etc - to help further the mission of SURJ, engaging more white people in our shared work for racial justice.

As of 2015;^[9]

Shutting down Trump

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has cancelled a campaign rally in Chicago after the event turned into a chaotic scene with clashes between thousands of supporters and protesters, March 11, 2016.

CNN estimated there were between 8,500 to 10,000 people in the Chicago arena when tensions erupted into chaos.

Chicago activists had spent the week leading up to the rally planning how to disrupt it.

One group, Showing Up for Racial Justice, coordinated with minority student groups on local campuses, using group email chains and messaging so that protesters could stay in constant communication.

One of the organizers, Nathaniel Lewis, 25, a master's degree student in public health at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said he was shocked they succeeded in shutting the rally down.

"I'm happy, I'm at peace, because we came together as a collective," Mr Lewis said.

"This is the last thing we expected to happen. It shows the power of unity."

A Trump campaign staffer took the stage about half an hour after the rally was slated to begin and said it would be postponed for safety reasons.^[10]

DSA affiliation

Oklahoma DSA Facebook, July 13, 2016

Showing Up for Racial Justice became affiliated with Democratic Socialists of America in July 2016;

Please join us in celebrating DSA’s new affiliation with Showing Up For Racial Justice (SURJ). SURJ is a national network of groups and individuals organizing white people for racial justice. Though DSA has many active members and leaders of color, the reality is the majority of our membership is white. Being honest with ourselves about this reality means we need resources that can help our primarily white chapters to learn to do more effective anti-racist coalition work. To that end we think affiliating with SURJ, with its wealth of activist trainings, educational materials and networking resources, is an important first step in helping DSA to become an even stronger multi-racial organization in the long run.