Black Lives Matter: CORE’s commitment to Allyship
Black Lives Matter! It’s important to declare this and even more important to live this way. CORE has held racial justice as a guiding principle in our work for years. We acknowledge that we have frequently failed to live up to this principle. We commit to ongoing learning, to following the leadership of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, and to continue funding BIPOC-led organizations and individuals.
We recognize that this country is built on racialized and patriarchal capitalism that has embedded violence, exploitation, and division into all of our institutions and the very fabric of our society. The murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and others, as well as the disproportionate health and economic impacts of the pandemic on black and brown people are the most recent visible expressions of that violence.
In solidarity with those organizing for the well-being of and justice for black and brown people, we believe in dismantling the internalized and external structures that maintain these systems. We support the policy platform of the Movement for Black Lives and Freedom, Inc.‘s campaigns: #DefundThePolice, #InvestInYouth, #PoliceFreeSchools, and #CommunityControl of police. We believe that advancing these platforms/campaigns will strengthen democracy and also help address increasing militarization of policing, a resurgence of fascism, and increasingly authoritarian government regimes that threaten us all.
CORE has always focused on the need for deep systemic change that must be accompanied by internal learning/unlearning and healing. We call on all of us — and particularly white people — individually and collectively, to work, learn, and grow to that end and towards the creation of the beloved community. Below are resources for anti-racism, systemic change, and embodied learning. We invite you to join us in this journey. With love, Julie, Becca, and Megan
RESOURCES
There are many resources available for unlearning racism and numerous organizations led by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) in Madison and beyond. We are including some of them here. This is not a comprehensive list.
We invite you to support organizations led by BIPOC. Below are some that we know are doing important work. (There are many others beyond this list.)
- African American Roundtable
- Black Leaders Organizing for Communities
- BOLD (Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity)
- Centro Hispano of Dane County
- Freedom, Inc.
- GSAFE
- Infamous Mothers
- Justified Anger Coalition-Nehemiah
- Latino Consortium for Action Emergency Relief Fund
- Madison Uprising
- Mentoring Positives
- Movement for Black Lives
- Natural Circles of Support
- Orgullo Latinx
- Positive Women for Change
- UNIDOS Against Domestic Violence
- Urban Triage
- Voces de la Frontera
Additional organizations and resources for white people wanting to learn more about/take action on anti-racism:
- Anti-Racist Resource Guide
- Cultural Coherence: Embodied Anti-Racism for White People (an email mailing list)
- Deep Diversity (CORE has limited scholarships available for this and the YWCA trainings. Please contact us if you are interested.)
- Detour Spotting: for white anti-Racists
- Education for Racial Equity (This and Deep Diversity also include embodied approaches to unlearning racism.)
- Families for Justice
- Groundwork
- Institutes for the Healing of Racism
- Justified Anger
- Leesa Renee Hall‘s Patreon, which provides access to Hall’s Inner Field Trip workshops, and anti-bias education for Highly Sensitive People
- Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ)
- Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man (video)
- YWCA-Madison Racial & Gender Equity
- Witnessing Whiteness workshop series (3 series led by Madison area facilitators; two starting June 30 and here), July 1 (Two of these are full as of publication, but follow the links to get on the mailing lists.)