Black Lives Matter Archives - Wayside Youth & Family Support Network

One Anti-Racist Action You Can Take Today: Educate Yourself on the Laws & Push for Change

Wayside Team — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 23:53:55 +0000

By Amy Hogarth
Director of Recruitment and Inclusion

We are thrilled that the new administration is giving racial equity respect and attention – there is no time to waste when it comes to systemic change. It is invigorating to see our leaders who have white privilege use that privilege to take steps to empower folx who need equity.

The work is only starting – it is very important for those of us in social work to help ensure the voices of the unheard are heard and are represented by those making laws, making change and helping support folx of all races, ethnicities and socioeconomic backgrounds.

Today’s executive orders on racial equality are a calling in to those with white privilege to do their work and examine ways they have benefited from discrimination and inequity.As we approach Black History Month let it be four weeks that white people seek to understand that history of black folxs is filled with harm and pain inflicted on black bodies. It seems like an important time for white folxs to educate themselves about some of the laws that white folx benefit from and get interested in repair, reparations and restoration.

Read more about the significance, and reaction to, the Executive Orders on Racial Equity:

NAACP President and CEO releases statement on President Biden’s executive actions

BLM Movement co-founder on Biden’s Executive Orders “It’s a Nod but there’s more to do on racial equity.” – Patrisse Cullors speaking on MSNBC

Biden’s early move to deliver on his promise of racial equity, US New

5 Things to know about Biden’s racial equity orders, The Hill

Just as we score policies’ budget impact we should score for racial equity as well, Brookings Institute

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One Anti-Racist Action You Can Take Today: Support Black-owned Businesses

Wayside Team — Tue, 30 Jun 2020 07:35:14 +0000

By Guimel DeCarvalho
Director of People and Culture, Chief Diversity Officer

Black-owned businesses have long been shut out of capital, loans and lines of credit due to discriminatory practices and systemic defunding of Black communities. Attempts by black business owners to generate wealth have been met with resistance and violence. In 1921, a mob of white vigilantes burned 35 city blocks, killed 300 black people and injured 800 in the Greenwood District of Tulsa, an area known as Black Wall St. Over the course of two days Black Wall St., one of the most affluent African-American communities in the United States, was destroyed during the race riot known as the Tulsa Massacre of 1921.

Black-owned businesses continue to face barriers that put them at a financial disadvantage. Most recently, during the COVID-19 crisis that has disproportionately impacted Black communities, black business owners were unable to access federal loans through the Paycheck Protection Program. The small business program was run through private banks, making it more difficult for Black-owned businesses to receive loans as well-resourced businesses jumped to the head of the line. While adjustments have since been to help minority and women-owned businesses secure funding, the aid has not come quick enough as 41 percent of Black-owned businesses have closed since February compared to 17 percent of white-owned businesses.

Black-owned businesses need your support now. What can you do? Shop, eat and advocate for Black-owned businesses in your neighborhood, city and state. Click here for a list of websites and apps including the Official Black Wall Street.

Resources for Black-owned business in the Greater Boston area:

Black Economic Council of Massachusetts

A List of 50+ Black-Owned Restaurants in Boston

Crowd-Sourced Spreadsheet of Over 150 Black-Owned Businesses

List of Black-Owned Companies in the Boston Area

Here’s a Running List of Black-Owned Businesses to Support in Greater Boston

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10 Things We Want White People to Do to Celebrate Juneteenth

Wayside Team — Thu, 18 Jun 2020 09:00:47 +0000

By Guimel Carvalho, Director of People and Culture and Amy Hogarth Director of Recruitment and Inclusion

Juneteenth, also known as Emancipation Day, marks the day when Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, arrived in Galveston, Texas to announce the end of the Civil War and slavery. It was June 19, 1865 and although the Emancipation Proclamation had freed slaves more than two years earlier there was minimal enforcement in Texas due to a lack of Union troops.

Each year, Juneteenth is a day for Black people to celebrate freedom. This year Juneteenth carries deeper meaning in the wake of Black lives lost to police brutality in the last few weeks and months. It’s hard to think that freedom is on the minds or in the hearts of Americans after the murder of George Floyd, after demonstrations for liberation or after the President was planning a political rally today.

Black and Brown people are calling on white people to stand with them and take action. They’ve been fighting too hard and too long. It made us think about what do we want white people to do to celebrate Juneteenth?

10 Things We Want White People to Do to Celebrate Juneteenth

We want white people to deeply consider the wound of racism on the hearts of every Black American.
On Juneteenth we want white people to read, study Black history, Black poets, Black leaders, Black achievements.
We want white people to do things about racism as readily as they do things for their own children.
We want white people to make a list of resolutions, of promises, of vows about what will it take for them to use their power, their privilege, their platforms of power to give space to Black and Brown leaders.
We want them to find an accountability partner and make the list public of what actions they will take. They CAN do this on social media. A lot of those actions will be giving up privilege and making room for folks who they may not have noticed have no room at all.
We want white people to stop talking about how uncomfortable it is to talk about racism or police violence.
We want white people to stop being afraid of their own internalized white supremacy. We want them to search and look within at hard facts of thought and deed. Who cares about being comfortable? What about being true, brave and real instead?
Then we want white people to stop talking and listen to what needs to be done.
We want white people to plan on spending time in spaces with folks who are not like you.
We want white people to hold other white people accountable not on social media, instead with measured voices that call folks in to look and wrestle – to change. We are interested in courageous conversations, in hearing folks out and in allowing themselves to feel terrible and to let that feeling be a crucible for change.

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One Anti-Racist Action You Can Take Today: Learn About & Plan How You Will Celebrate Juneteenth

Wayside Team — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 19:41:15 +0000

By Guimel DeCarvalho
Director of People and Culture

Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. Dating back to 1865, it was on June 19^th that the Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free. Note that this was two and a half years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation – which had become official January 1, 1863.The Emancipation Proclamation had little impact on the Texans due to the minimal number of Union troops to enforce the new Executive Order. However, with the surrender of General Lee in April of 1865, and the arrival of General Granger’s regiment, the forces were finally strong enough to influence and overcome the resistance.

Yet there is so much more to this than just this short paragraph. Now it is more important than ever to learn more about why this day is more than a symbolic recognition of the end of slavery. Below are some resources if you would like to expand your knowledge on this celebration.

Why celebrating Juneteenth is more important now than ever – Vox

www.vox.com

Facts You Might Not Know About Juneteenth | Mental Floss

www.mentalfloss.com

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We Have Been Called Into Action – What Are YOU Going To Do

Wayside Team — Mon, 08 Jun 2020 21:23:23 +0000

Sukhbir Bansal-Roberts

Benefits Specialist

The question that many of us have been asking ourselves is “What can I do, in my own life, to help the nation fulfill its promise?”

Like so many, I am heartbroken and outraged by the recent killing of George Floyd in Minnesota while in the custody of police officers, the most recent example in a long history of racial injustices, attacks, and accusations – such as Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor.

I am an immigrant woman of color, I often experience my “American Feeling” when I watch a patriotic parade on July 4^th or see the Statute of Liberty – but right now, my American Feeling is one of despair. So much injustice, so much violence experienced by the black people of our country, for so long. The America ideal of “liberty and justice for all” is often violated.

When something is so huge, its often hard to find the right words – and I find myself reaching for and repeating the words from great leaders. In this case the words of John F. Kennedy that he gave on June 11, 1963 After the Alabama National Guard was required to enforce a court order requiring the desegregation of the University of Alabama seem appropriate:

“I hope that every American, regardless of where he lives, will stop and examine his conscious about this and other related incidents. This nation was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds. It was founded by the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.

Today we are committed to a worldwide struggle to promote and protect the rights of all who wish to be free. And when Americans are sent to Viet-Nam or West Berlin, we do not ask for whites only. It ought to be possible, therefore, for American students of any color to attend any public institution they select without having to be backed up by troops..…

The heart of the question is whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities, whether we are going to treat our fellow Americans as we want to be treated. If an American, because his skin is dark…cannot enjoy the full and free life which all of us want, then who among us would be content…[to] stand in his place? Who among us would then be content with the counsels of patience and delay?…Now the time has come for this Nation to fulfill its promise.”

Kennedy’s speech was given almost sixty years ago, yet it remains so apt today. Like many of you, I am stopping and examining my conscience about this and other related incidents.

In reflecting on this moment and this speech, I’m asking myself, what can I do in my own life to help this nation to fulfill its promise?

Televised Address to the Nation on Civil Rights | JFK Library

www.jfklibrary.org

An American Uprising…The Feeling of Hope!

Never in American history have we seen the confluence of three massive events: a pandemic, unprecedented unemployment and economic crisis, and one of the largest displays of civil unrest in our nation’s history. All in the same two weeks! If you’re feeling on edge, having trouble sleeping, and/or kind of blue, it’s with good reason.

We don’t have a road map for these times. But we do have resources and skills: wisdom, mindfulness, presence, love, and our ability to choose in each and every moment who and how we want to be.

Like you, I have watched with horror as the city streets in America have been filled with military presence, police using batons on our citizens, many of whom are peacefully protesting, tear gas and flash bombs erupting in our streets. Like you, I grieve the loss of lives, the brutality, the division and separation that severs a deep divide across our nation.

Yet, I also see something else emerging. I see a nation rising in a unified voice calling for Oneness, Unity, Peace, Justice, and Equality. We are no longer waiting for “the leadership” to provide the moral compass for our country. We, the people, are rising up to stand for one another. We are taking a stand for the truth that we are all one.

Not one nation – but one vibration, one energy, one heartbeat of humanity.

We are waking up to the truth that harm cannot fall to a segment without harming the whole. The healing of our country, the healing of the hundreds of years of oppression and abuse heaped upon minority communities will end when we all rise up and stand for love.

It seems like a small gesture to donate money, but donating is something concrete we can do to support vital work that’s going on.

If you decide to give money, here are some links to reputable organizations

The Bail Project – bailproject.org – a non-profit organization designed to combat mass incarceration by disrupting the money bail system—one person at a time
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund – www.naacpldf.org– – America’s premier legal organization fighting for racial justice. Through litigation, advocacy, and public education, LDF seeks structural changes to expand democracy, eliminate disparities, and achieve racial justice in a society that fulfills the promise of equality for all Americans.
Osborne Association – www.osborneny.org– working for systemic reforms while we provide opportunities for people to reunite with their families, continue their education, connect to meaningful employment, and rebuild their lives after incarceration
Black Lives Matter – https://blacklivesmatter.com/ – Black Lives Matter Foundation, Inc is a global organization in the US, UK, and Canada, whose mission is to eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes.

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