and the Weavers and Coordinators of the Work That Reconnects Network stand in solidarity with Black, Brown, and Indigenous Communities in the United States, Canada, and everywhere else in the world as uprisings gain strength, and brutal repression escalates. We invite everyone in the Work That Reconnects community to stand with us.
Those of us in the USA stand in solidarity with Black-led racial justice organizations across the country and ask you to join us in our commitment to racial justice, to honor the memory of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many others.
Solidarity is an action, and we ask white members of our community, in particular, to take action today, and to commit to an anti-racist practice in your work, your homes, and your communities. Several suggested actions in the USA appear below, starting with the Movement for Black Lives.
We express our deep Gratitude to the untold numbers of people risking their lives and health to demonstrate against state-sanctioned violence in all its forms in the US and around the world. We are grateful for the many leaders who have spoken out forcefully against injustice and racism, against police brutality and killing of innocent BIPOC people, and against the wide-spread militarized oppression of peaceful demonstrations.
We in the USA join in and honor the collective Grief and outrage over innocent lives harmed and lost in recent days, and in the 500 years of oppression and genocide that have marked our history. We share the fear of growing fascism in our government and of a heavily armed police force. We are angry that our insane economic and political systems create so much suffering in our name.
Through all of this, we begin to See with New/Ancient Eyes to discern the depth and breadth of systemic racism that has built and powers the Industrial Growth Society. We see how racism has been deliberately engendered and manipulated to maintain the power of a small number of wealthy people, by keeping the rest of us separate and competitive with one another. We acknowledge the racism that lives in our communities, the white silence that has been complicit in continuing oppression, and the need for deep and sustained commitment to undoing racism and oppression in all its forms.
While this most recent uprising for justice is a response to the police brutality and lethal force used in the US against innocent Black people, we acknowledge that the violent oppression of BIPOC in the US is deeply connected with the worldwide oppression of populations considered “less than;” the caste system in India, the marginalization of the Roma peoples in Europe, and the plight of African refugees throughout Europe are just a few examples. And of course these forms of human-on-human violence and the destruction by Industrial Growth Societies of Earth’s ecosystems and species continually reinforce each other.
We who are white must commit and recommit, to follow BIPOC leadership as we Go Forth into action, listening with New/Ancient Ears to the stories and experiences of our Black, Brown, and Indigenous siblings to discover how our conditioning in a white supremacist culture perpetuates harms on all levels – interpersonal, community, governmental, environmental. In the process, we will continue to explore how practices and framing within the Work That Reconnects may exclude or harm BIPOC participants – and misrepresent history for all participants – and work to change practices and framing accordingly. See the Evolving Edge section on our website and in Deep Times journal.
While the WTR Network started in the US and the core team of Weavers and Coordinators are largely white and all reside in North America, our wider community includes Black, Indigenous, Asian, and Latinx people and people from many other ethnic groups, as well as people from almost every part of the world. We invite the contribution and leadership of our diverse community and commit to listen deeply to facilitators from all backgrounds. We know that you have valuable and needed contributions to make to the Work That Reconnects from your own worldviews and practices.
Suggestions for how to take action in the USA:
(We invite people elsewhere in the world to look into the issues of racial injustice in your own local community and contribute to the organizations working to address them.)
- We recommend joining and supporting the Movement for Black Lives and following their lead. Please donate to their organization, if you can.
- Click here for a list of actions from Courage Campaign to support BIPOC communities.
- Demand that your local city or town enact these eight reforms. Campaign ZERO, a data-informed platform to end police violence, has identified eight policies that can decrease police violence by 72%. Learn more about these policies on their #8CantWait website and demand that your city or town implement them.
- Read and support these recommendations for Congressional action from Ben and Jerry’s.
- Donate to support bail funds for protesters of police violence.
- Donate to organizations fighting racism and police brutality.
- Take action with Color of Change.
- More national actions are being added to an Anti-Racism Toolkit here.
