ABOUT SURJ KC
WHO WE ARE
Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) Kansas City is one of over 200 chapters within a national organization that brings hundreds of thousands of white people into the fight for racial and economic justice.
For too long, the Right has hoarded wealth and power by using strategic racism to convince white people that we have more in common with billionaires and corporate elites than with the people of color in our own metro area communities.
At SURJ KC, we call white folks in by offering a better alternative: a just, vibrant future where people of all races work together to win what we need.
We do this work by building people power through multi-racial collaboration across our network within campaigns that include personal support, political education, and solidarity action.
Why White People?
In the midst of today’s crises– rising anti-democratic movements, racist murders, climate catastrophe– white communities have an important role to play. We’ve been bringing white people into fights for racial and economic justice since 2016, a long overdue answer to the call from Black leadership for white people to organize our own. Alongside our partners, we’ve kept school districts and administrations accountable, overturned and blocked abortion bans, and won better conditions for working people. Our members show year after year that white people have so much to gain in fighting to end racism.
Our Shared Interest.
The years ahead will be our generation’s time to either re-align millions of white people with communities of color fighting for justice for us all… or a missed opportunity with massive consequences. At SURJ, we organize of white people around our shared interest– what we stand to gain– in fighting alongside people of color. Right now, conditions in the United States threaten white people in immediate ways – from the dismantling of public education, to the criminalization of protest and freedom to decide what to do with our bodies. White people have a shared interest in fighting racism, and the current threats of authoritarianism are deeply rooted in racism.
Points of Unity
We do our work from a set of seven shared values we call our Points of Unity. We believe these are essential to the movement to dismantle white supremacy. Everyone who agrees with our Points of Unity is welcome to participate in the SURJ KC Network.
Enough for Everyone
One of the things that dominant white culture teaches us is to feel isolation, fear, and alienation in everything we do. We believe that there is enough for all of us, but it is unequally distributed and structurally contained to keep resources scarce.
The United States was built on a history of genocide, slavery, land theft, exploitation and the scapegoating of immigrants. History demonstrates that capitalism and inequality are heavily dependent on racism. Therefore, we must attack the economic structures that maintain racial castes.
We can fight the ideas and structures that limit and control global capital by creating a different world together. We believe that part of our role as white people is to raise resources to support People of Color-led efforts AND to engage more white people in racial justice work.
Growth is Good
Sometimes we fear that if we bring in new people who do not “talk our talk “or “do it right” it will interfere with what we are building. However, if we do not bring in new people, our work cannot grow. And if our work does not grow, we cannot amass the numbers of white people needed to undermine white supremacy and join People of Color led efforts for fundamental social change.
No one will be excluded from our work based on their race, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, personal ethics, if they share our values. All have something valuable to share and receive in this work. A variety of interests and styles is important and encouraged.
Accountability Through Collective Action
We believe change happens when we build with millions of other people to change culture, policies and practices. We need a mass movement to make change.
We build accountability relationships with organizations led by people of color who are doing racial justice work in the movement.
Accountability doesn’t mean waiting by the phone for a person of color to tell us exactly what to do. It means developing plans to organize in the white community and seeking feedback.
Sometimes people of color are too busy organizing in their own communities to provide us feedback. We must take the initiative to dismantle racism in white communities and spaces of power whenever possible.
Take Risks, Learn, and Keep Going
As white people, we are going to make mistakes when doing racial justice work. It’s inevitable. We don’t know anyone who has been in the work and hasn’t made a mistake. Not a single person.
People of color take risks every day by living and moving through the world. We commit to challenging ourselves to be outside our comfort zones when doing this work.
While we take on real risk, we know that the risk is always greater for people of color.
When we make mistakes, we want to take the time to reflect on them thoughtfully and keep moving in the work. If the mistake has caused harm, we must make amends for the harm caused through apologies, changes in behavior or other kinds of commitments. We cannot let making mistakes prevent us from continuing our work. There’s just too much at stake.
We need to support our friends and members of our group when they make mistakes to learn, make amends, and stay in motion.
Tap Into White Mutual Interest
Racial justice isn’t something we help people of color with. We must find our stake— our mutual interest— in joining these fights.
The system of white supremacy harms all of us, including white people, though in very different ways than people of color. If we are going to stay in the work for the long haul, we need to get clear with ourselves about what we have to gain through this fight.
Many white people, like poor and working class, disabled, and queer people, have also been harmed by systemic oppression and have much to gain materially from joining fights for racial and economic justice.
White supremacy has hurt white people by cutting us off from powerful traditions and cultures that we come from. Instead, we learn to celebrate money and power. It also hurts poor and working-class white people in particular by keeping white folks from uniting with people of color to fight for fair wages, healthcare, and everything that all of us deserve.
Practice a Space of Love & Calling In
It is all too common to shame and blame people who don’t have the “perfect” words or don’t exactly agree with or understand our analysis. That kind of behavior doesn’t help us build a mass movement for change.
Calling people in is how we want to be with one another as white people. That means:
Recognizing we all mess up, and speaking from this shared experience
Being specific and direct
Talking to people in times and places that support conversation and learning
Calling people in isn’t:
How we want to be with people in power — we organize to create tension and target people in power. Calling them in isn’t how we think change happens.
A way to keep people in the mainstream comfortable. When people who are at the “margins” of a group (such as LGBTQ folks, people with disabilities, poor and working-class people) have feedback or choose to speak, they don’t need to be “polite” or avoid tension.
Act from an “Intersectional Analysis of Oppressions”
(coined by Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw)
While white supremacy is at the center of our analysis, we are clear that people exist at an intersection of oppressions that have the potential to divide our movement and lessen our power. Racism is interconnected with classism, patriarchy, homophobia, imperialism, ageism, ableism. We are committed to using an intersectional analysis of these oppressions and promote behaviors (i.e group norms etc) that confront all of them.
Accountability
SURJ KC launched in May of 2016, in part, out of a growing request from area People of Color (POC). We believe it is the responsibility of white people and not the burden of POC to organize white people for racial justice. While we organize white people, we do our work in accountability with POC and mobilize white people to show up in POC-led spaces for racial justice. We also believe racism affects all of us, and so we organize for our collective liberation.
SURJ KC is in an accountability relationship with the People of Color Power Group. The POC Power Group’s goal is to challenge systems of white supremacy within communities of color, and its mission is to facilitate opportunities for organizing and educating communities of color while fostering emerging organizers of color. The POC Power Group accomplishes this work in these ways:
Within Communities of Color
Building a movement based on radical honesty and transparency.
Uplifting the multiple assets of leaders and communities of color.
In Partnership with SURJ KC
Participating in the design process of SURJ mass meetings and the actions of the Coordinating Council.
Being a think partner in education and agitation, such as co-presenting and providing resources.
Critical Analysis in Kansas City
Being a think partner and possible collaborator in initiatives and projects that benefit communities of color or POC leadership.
Being a “call-in” voice with initiatives and projects that threaten the livelihood of communities of color.
We are a part of SURJ National
SURJ is a national network of groups and individuals organizing white people for racial and economic justice.