This week we’re taking inspiration from the wisdom of Black lesbian feminist theorist Audre Lorde, who famously observed:

Monday we delved into BPF’s work around climate change, and Tuesday we looked at gun violence. Today, one of the core, guiding issues that informs all others:

Racial Justice

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1. Black Friday 14: Interfaith group joins push to Drop the Charges against Black Lives Matter activists

Co-Directors Dawn and Katie, plus another BPFer, teamed up with interfaith leaders to get arrested at the Oakland courthouse, part of a strategy that succeeded in persuading the Oakland District Attorney to drop charges against Black Lives Matter activists, including Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza.

For months, the 14 activists had been facing $70,000 in fines and the possibility of jail time for blocking a BART train on Black Friday 2014, shortly after the non-indictment of Darren Wilson in Ferguson.

This was a really important solidarity effort for many reasons — including the fact that the all-black group of protesters was being unfairly targeted. Their civil disobedience was very similar to ones by white and Asian protesters, who had their charges dropped right away.

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2. Slavery On Wall Street: Race and the Roots of Climate Injustice

NYC BPFers held space to honor the connections between colonialism, slavery, capitalism, and climate destruction during Pope Francis’ visit to New York City.

[vimeo=https://vimeo.com/144699519]

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3. #NoNewSFJail: joining a 3-person blockade to help stop a redundant new SF jail from being built.

One of the BPF Co-Directors locked themself to other protesters in a San Francisco city meeting to stop a redundant new SF jail from being built, and redirect city money to mental health, housing, and other services.

San Francisco is only 5% Black at this point, but Black folks make up 56% or more of the SF jail population.

[youtube=https://youtu.be/gY4b_pM4sg4]

Just yesterday the good news came down: the $300 million new jail was defeated in San Francisco! Check out coverage from yesterday’s vote and the day before.

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4. BPFers in Oakland also organized a “Care Not Cages” guerilla healing event.

We protested jail expansion by offering free massage, tea, poetry, sidewalk counseling, meditation, and flowers in downtown Oakland.



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Questions, comments, or concerns? Feel free to share in the thread below!

And stay tuned for tomorrow’s issue: Affordable Housing.

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