Showing Up for Racial Justice-Santa Cruz County, CA

Michele Norris – Our Hidden Conversations

with Vilashini Cooppan, Professor of Literature and Critical Race and Ethnic Studies

Thursday • Mar 7 • 7:00 PM • FREE • wheelchair accessible
Cowell Ranch Hay Barn • UCSC • Santa Cruz

Bookshop Santa Cruz and The Humanities Institute at UC Santa Cruz welcome Peabody Award-winning journalist Michele Norris for a discussion of her new book Our Hidden Conversations: What Americans Really Think About Race and Identity—a transformative dialogue on race and identity in America, unearthed through Norris’s decade-long work at The Race Card Project. This is event is cosponsored by NAACP Santa Cruz County.

The prompt seemed simple: Race. Your Thoughts. Six Words. Please Send.

The answers, though, have been challenging and complicated. In the twelve years since award-winning journalist Michele Norris first posed that question, over half a million people have submitted their stories to The Race Card Project inbox. The stories are shocking in their depth and candor, spanning the full spectrum of race, ethnicity, identity, and class.

Our Hidden Conversations reminds us that even during times of great division, honesty, grace, and a willing ear can provide a bridge toward empathy and maybe even understanding.

Michele Norris is one of America’s most trusted voices in journalism, earning several honors over a long career, including Peabody, Emmy, Dupont, and Goldsmith awards. She is a columnist for The Washington Post Opinion Section, the host of the Audible Original Podcast, Your Mama’s Kitchen, and from 2002 to 2012 she was a cohost of NPR’s All Things Considered.

Vilashini Cooppan is Professor of Literature and Critical Race and Ethnic Studies at UCSC. She teaches and writes about comparative and world literature, the memory and legacies of colonial and racial violence, and literary theory. She is the author of Worlds Within: National Narratives and Global Connections in Postcolonial Writing (Stanford UP, 2009), numerous journal articles and book chapters, and has co-edited the forthcoming volume Autotheories: Transdisciplinary Experiments in Self-Theorizing.

SURJ Santa Cruz County Statement on Palestine and Israel

We at SURJ Santa Cruz County, made up of both Jewish and non-Jewish members, want to express our heartbreak, grief and outrage at the ongoing genocidal bombardment of innocent civilian lives in Palestine. As we write this, more than 29,000 civilians have been killed in Gaza, and over 80,000 have been injured. People are starving and the health system has collapsed. We also continue to mourn the loss of life and condemn the brutal killing of 1,200 Israeli civilians on October 7th.

We stand in solidarity with people and human rights organizations around the world who are supporting a permanent ceasefire, release of all hostages, the unrestricted flow of humanitarian aid, and non-military solutions where all people in the region are liberated.

We condemn the systems and governments that set unjust and inhumane policies, and resist any stoking of hatred, or making any group of people the enemy.

We are also committed to resisting the trap of binary thinking; we are capable of holding complicated, multi-faceted truths at the same time, and uplifting our shared humanity. Palestinian people have been oppressed by occupation, apartheid, and extreme anti-Arab hatred. And Jewish people have faced anti-Jewish violence for centuries. However, the current tactics of the Israel Defense Forces are obliterating Palestinians and this requires all of us to demand that they stop killing civilians now.

We understand that genuine peace and safety must be grounded in justice, equity, and basic rights for everyone. Every human life is sacred and we condemn, in the strongest terms, the indiscriminate killing of civilians by anyone, anywhere. We abhor all forms of oppression, and are committed to challenging white supremacy wherever it shows up.

We will not be silent as our government stokes hatred or as war-profiteering weapons manufacturers like Lockheed Martin profit off the rising death toll in Gaza. Weapons, war and violence make the world less safe for everyone.

Because we all carry trauma, conversations where different perspectives are shared can result in discomfort and conflict. This is an expected and natural part of doing the work. We encourage all of us to approach differences with curiosity, compassion and the intent to understand. Rather than trying to change opinions or calling people out when we don’t agree, we seek to find common ground and unity, especially as division is a “master’s tool” that is not effective in finding alternatives toward dismantling the “master’s house” (to borrow from Audre Lorde).

We are inspired by the courageous voices and actions of Palestinian and Jewish human rights activists working together to address the roots of injustice, heal horrific traumas, and seek equitable long-term solutions.

Finally, we would like to direct people to SURJ Bay Area’s statement on Justice for Palestinian Solidarity for further explanation, including the section from Jewish members.

And we call on everyone in our network to turn grief and despair into action.

Here are some links and videos that show the interconnectedness of this moment in time to all liberation struggles:

Leaders like Angela Davis have been educating us and calling for a Free Palestine for many years now.
Here is a fabulous article about the connection between Black organizers and leaders and Palestine.
Here is a film about the propaganda spread by the State of Israel that we recommend seeing.
Follow the money to learn who is profiting from this genocide and continue your support for the Palestinian-led BDS movement for freedom and justice.
Check out this interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates about his experience in Palestine.

Additional statements to read and reflect on:

Letter to the Editor crafted by local perinatal workers here in our county.

Statement by Cat Brooks of the Anti Police-Terror Project.

Santa Cruz Black Film Series : Whose Streets

Each month through June
3rd Tuesday • Resource Center for Nonviolence • 612 Ocean St • Santa Cruz
3rd Wednesday • Capitola Library • 2005 Wharf Rd • Capitola
6:30 PM, doors at 6:00 • FREE • wheelchair accessible

B.L.A.C.K. On Screen is a five-documentary film series focusing on the themes behind our acronym BLACK: Building Legacies of Access in Communities of Kinship.

Starting this month through June, screenings will be the 3rd Tuesday at the Resource Center for Nonviolence and the 3rd Wednesday of the month at the Capitola Branch Library. Doors open at 6:00, screenings begin at 6:30.

Whose Streets? is February’s film. Watch the trailer here.

Each screening will be followed by a discussion and/or Q&A. Some of the filmmakers will be participating. Stay tuned!

ABOUT THE FILM

When unarmed black teenager Michael Brown was killed by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, and left lying in the street for hours, it marked a breaking point for the residents of the St. Louis area and beyond. Uniting people from the community and across the nation, a movement—propelled by young activists and Ferguson community members—was born. Told by the local residents and activists on the frontlines fighting for justice, equality and an end to police brutality, Whose Streets? is an unflinching look at the Ferguson uprising and the movement that followed.

The series continues with:

February 20
Whose Streets?

March 20
Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and Universities. Explores the pivotal role historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have played over the course of 150 years.

April 17
Against All Odds: The Fight for The Black Middle Class. Acclaimed journalist Bob Herbert asks, “Have Black Americans had a fair shot at the American dream?” He probes the harsh and often brutal discrimination that has made it extremely difficult for African-Americans to establish a middle-class standard of living, while also exploring the often heroic efforts of Black families to pursue the American Dream in the face of unrelenting barriers.

May 22
The Taking of Harris Neck: 80 years of Injustice for the Gullah People. The stunning marshlands of Harris Neck, Georgia have a tragic history. In 1942, the US government took 2687 acres of land inhabited by descendants of freed slaves to build an airbase. The government promised to give the land back after the war. Now 80 years later the community is still fighting to get their land back. The Taking of Harris Neck tells a story of trauma and racism – and the perseverance to overcome against all odds.

June 19
Descendant. Follows descendants of the survivors from the Clotilda, the last ship that carried enslaved Africans to the United States, as they reclaim their story.

Watsonville Film Festival: Watsonville Drag Story Time Documentary

Saturday • March 9 • 1:00 PM • Ticketed event • wheelchair accessible
Cinelux Green Valley Cinema • 1125 S. Green Valley Road • Watsonville

Catch a screening of Watsonville Drag Story Time, a documentary that follows the first bilingual story time in Watsonville, CA.

After an anonymous hate letter was published by a local newspaper, local organizers worked together to curate a powerful, secure and supportive family friendly event.

Directed by Rita Carmona

Produced by Meloddy Gao

Featuring local drag queens Xinistra Gl’Amour and Rogue Roulette

Part of the Watsonville Film Festival – order tickets here!

PVUSD Board Meeting News (2024-03-13)

Here is some coverage from the PVUSD Board meeting on March 13, 2024.

Here’s a link to the recording of the actual meeting : the comments are during these timestamps: 1:13:14 to 2:39:35

KION’s news covered it and there is also a Monterey Weekly article.

with Vilashini Cooppan, Professor of Literature and Critical Race and Ethnic Studies

Thursday • Mar 7 • 7:00 PM • FREE • wheelchair accessibleCowell Ranch Hay Barn • UCSC • Santa Cruz

Take action with SURJ in 2024!

Thursday • Mar 7 • 7:00 PM • FREE • wheelchair accessible
Cowell Ranch Hay Barn • UCSC • Santa Cruz