The rallying call to defund the police could not be more clear in this time of rebellion and uprising for Black lives, justice and liberation. For those of us who are thinking about this strategy for the first time, or are new to lineages of abolitionist work, here are some resources to guide and deepen understanding of where this call comes from, what it is, and how to contribute to this movement in the short and long term.
Here are a range of resources to guide and coordinate action, to align understandings and work in solidarity with humility and accountability. We mourn the stealing of the lives of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and Tony McDade at the hands of the police and white vigilantes. In mourning, sorrow and anger, we recommit to the lifelong work of ending the 400 year old nightmare of white supremacy.
When Amy Cooper pointed her finger at Chris Cooper saying, with cell phone in her other hand, “I am going to tell them (the police) that an African-American man is threatening my life.”, a crystallization of decades and centuries of ghosts that have haunted this country came into sharp focus. The weaponization of white womanhood is so old.
A Transcript of an Interview with White Noise Collective on Feminist Magazine Radio Show, July 2, 2019.
We use “white womanhood” as a term to capture the set of cultural messages that are widely spread through media and institutions like churches and schools about how “white women” should look, act, behave, and participate in society. These messages often result in learned behaviors that many people who identify as white women perform, or are expected to perform in order to be accepted.… Read more
WNC Community,
1) From APTP: First off, thank you to EVERYONE for participating in the #DefundOPD Campaign.
Cross-posted from Catalyst Project:
Dear Friends,
Trump called himself the ‘law and order candidate’. He’s vocally supported “stop & frisk” policies that target Black and brown communities. His ‘first 100 days’ plan includes expanding federal funding for local police, federal law enforcement, and federal prosecutors. And he’s promised to have the Attorney General investigate Black Lives Matter protestors for criminal charges.… Read more
In this time of mourning, rage and national reckoning with the legacies and realities of racist police violence – resources for connection, deeper engagement and different forms of action are flooding through the widening cracks of this broken system. Here is a partial compilation, from quick click actions to concrete alternatives to political education to visionary policy solutions. … Read more
Below is a statement from SURJ’s (Showing Up for Racial Justice) leadership in light of the 136 murders of Black people by police this year and the shooting in Dallas last night.
SURJ condemns loss of life, no matter who is dead. As an organization committed to organizing white people to dismantle a criminal justice system brutalizing communities of color across the nation, SURJ condemns violence against the police and mourns the injuries and deaths of police officers killed in Dallas.… Read more
Dear District Attorney Nancy O’Malley,
This Friday we will mark the one-year anniversary of the Black Friday 14 non-violent direct action at the West Oakland BART station — an action inspired by a growing national movement to expose the painful legacy of police brutality and demand an end to police violence in our country.… Read more
White Noise has signed this powerful statement currently circulating, which speaks to our deepest commitments and reasons for existence as a collective.
Click Here to sign the statement
Posted from The African American Policy Forum (AAPF):
As we grieve for the nine African Americans who were murdered in their house of worship on June 17 2015, those of us who answer the call of feminism and antiracism must confront anew how the evils of racism and patriarchy continue to endanger all Black bodies, regardless of gender.
This insightful article is cross-posted from New Republic:
We cannot talk about the violence that Dylann Roof perpetrated at Emanuel AME last Wednesday night without talking about whiteness, and specifically, about white womanhood and its role in racist violence. We have to talk about those things, because Roof himself did.
Cross-posted with permission from Catalyst Project:
“This is not just Baltimore’s problem, like it wasn’t just Ferguson. This is racism in America.”
Dear Friend,
I’m from a majority Black and highly segregated city near Baltimore. Wilmington, Delaware had the longest domestic military occupation since the Civil War when the National Guard occupied the city for 9 months in 1968 after Dr.… Read more
The #BlackLivesMatter movement is expanding and deepening across the nation, and spreading around the globe. This sign, hashtag and rallying cry are filling streets, newsfeeds, imaginations and institutions. And white-identified folks eager to engage, enraged by injustice, and inspired by the movement are showing up in large numbers and in different ways.… Read more
“The killings became more and more frenzied with days of Thanksgiving feasts being held after each successful massacre. George Washington finally suggested that only one day of Thanksgiving per year be set aside instead of celebrating each and every massacre.” (Susan Bates)
This is an updated repost from last year, to continue our commitment to raise awareness about the actual origins and impact of this holiday that many of us celebrate without a second thought and to confront the mythologies that encourage us to ignore the real history of Thanksgiving:
We often think of Thanksgiving as a time of family, football, giving thanks and gorging.… Read more