ROCHESTER RACIAL JUSTICE TOOLKIT

Connected Histories & Realities 

Part of these struggles in the mid to late 20th century, was a growing awareness that the system of white supremacy first developed to establish the inferiority of Native Americans and enslaved Africans, also evolved to racialize, divide, discriminate against and oppress new immigrants to the U.S. in the 19th century and well into the 20th century. In addition, U.S. involvement in foreign conflicts and wars in Asia and the Middle East has also impacted race relations at home throughout our history.  Today, police violence, and  injustice in the criminal justice system disproportionally effects Native Americans, Black Americans, and Latinxs. In our post 9/11 world, Muslim Americans, while not a "racial" or "ethnic"group (Islam is practiced by people of all races), have become "racialized"-- meaning they are subject to racial stereotypes and non-white categorization. Other religious and ethnic groups including Arab Americans, Sikhs, South-Asian Americans, and others have been subject to Islamophobic hate speech and violence as well as policing and detention.  And while Asian Americans have often been referred to as a "model minority", Asian American history is marked by indentured servitude, anti-miscengenation laws to prevent interracial unions between Asians and whites, U.S. colonialism and wars in Asia, exclusionary laws barring immigration based on race, and internment in U.S. detention camps. Here again, our mainstream history lessons have failed to teach us all the ways in which both oppression and social justice victories have crossed racial and ethnic lines in the U.S.

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The Diversity Within

When we talk about race in the U.S. we tend to essentialize or treat different groups as if they are "monoliths"-- having the same identities and experiences across the board. White supremacy also functions to reduce groups to mere caricatures and stereotypes, with no depth or diversity. 

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This perspective has meant that on the whole we don't stop to consider the great diversity within a given group and the ways that they intersect and diverge to form distinct identities, experiences, and struggles. For example, the black population in the U.S. today is made up of African Americans (or the descendents of enslaved Africans, often mixed with white and/or Native American ancestry), African immigrants and refugees, black people from the Caribbean, Afro-Latinxs, Muslim-Americans, and bi-racial/multiracial individuals. These different identities also include intersections of gender, sexuality, class, ability, and faith. Recognizing and making space for all these identities and voices is often challenging even within communities of color and especially in political struggles for civil and human rights. The Black Lives Matter movement has worked to affirm that ALL black lives matter.

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Brown Lives Matter

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There's been a lot of talk recently about what it means to say "Brown Lives Matter" or "Native Lives Matter". These statements are very different than "All Lives Matter". They are declared from a place of solidarity and critical recognition of shared racial histories and realities. These affirmations are key in connecting communities of color to confront oppression within and outside these respective communities.

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International Solidarity 

International solidarity has also been a major part of social movements around racial justice in the U.S. Perhaps, the most popular example is of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s non-violent civil disobedience-- a philosophy and strategy inspired by the satyagraha  form of nonviolent resistance used by Gandhi and the struggle against British rule in India. In the 1980s, activists in the U.S. of many backgrounds stood in solidarity against apartheid in South Africa seeing undeniable links between the racial oppression in South Africa and in the U.S.

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Most recently, in the weeks and months following the shootings deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO and Eric Garner in Staten Island, NY marches and declarations of solidarity were heard in the United Kingdom, Palestine, Syria,  Mexico, Hong Kong, and  South Africa. Much of this solidarity also drew links to "state-sanctioned violence" and global racial injustice. After the 2016 shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, Black Lives Matter organizing has grown in countries across Europe and in Canada.The Dream Defenders and the Movement for Black Lives have also included calls for changes in U.S. military policy abroad.