Our Principles
White people, more specifically European Americans, created institutional racism. Racism is devastating to People of Color and is closely intertwined with all systems of oppression. It robs all of us — white people and People of Color — of our humanity, and it’s the responsibility of white people to dismantle it.
We take action based on the priorities of our accountability partners — organizations led and/or controlled by People of Color. We do not lead but act as allies. Because our allies focus on securing just legislation at the state and local level, we our work often includes pushing for/against legislation in the Maryland General Assembly and in City and County Councils. We also mobilize other white people to take action through supporting specific actions and events, like protests. As individuals, we take responsibility for our own bias and privilege; as a group, we act collectively to change the systemic biases and privileges built into our culture and laws. We are are not a hierarchy but a team; our collective work is done entirely by volunteers, sub-teams of members working together according to their capacity. |
Our Values
In our work of anti-racism, SURJ Baltimore has agreed to the seven shared values of Showing Up for Racial Justice.
Calling People In
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We are choosing to call people in, rather than to call people out. Our focus is on working with white people who are already in motion. While in many activist circles, there can be a culture of shame and blame, we want to bring as many white people into taking action for racial justice as possible.
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Take Risks, Make Mistakes, Learn and Make Amends, and Keep Going
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We know that we will have to take risks. Everyday, People of Color take risks in an effort to live their lives with full dignity, and right now we are in a moment where young Black people are taking risks everyday. We challenge ourselves and other white people to take risks as well, to stand up against a racist system, actions, and structures everyday. We know that in that process, we will make mistakes. Our goal is to learn from those mistakes and keep showing up again and again for what is right.
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Organize Out of Mutual Interest
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We use the term mutual interest to help us move from the idea of helping others, or just thinking about what is good for us, to understanding that our own liberation as white people, our own humanity, is inextricably linked to racial justice. Mutual interest means we cannot overcome the challenges we face unless we work for racial justice. It means our own freedom is bound up in the freedom of People of Color.
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Accountability Through Collective Action
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What national SURJ was called upon to do at our founding in 2009 was to take action — to show up when there are racist attacks; when the police harass and murder People of Color in the street, their homes, our communities. We maintain ongoing relationships, individually and organizationally, with leaders and organizations led by People of Color. We also know it is our work to organize other white people and we are committed to moving more white people to take action in their local communities, regionally and nationally for racial justice.
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There is Enough for All
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One of the things that dominant white culture teaches us, is to feel isolation and a concern for scarcity in everything we do. SURJ believes that there is enough for all of us, but it is unequally distributed and structurally contained to keep resources scarce. We can fight the idea and the structures that limit and control global capital by creating a different world together. We believe that part of our role as white people is to raise resources to support People of Color-led efforts and to engage more white people in racial justice.
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Growing is Good
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Sometimes we get afraid that if we bring in new people who do not talk our talk or “do it right” it will mess up what we are building. However, if we do not bring in new people, our work cannot grow. And if our work does not grow, we cannot bring the numbers of white people needed to undermine white supremacy and join People of Color led efforts for fundamental change. Longtime white southern civil rights activist Anne Braden once said that we have to stop believing that we are the only special ones who can be part of the work for racial justice. We must grow our groups and our movement, understanding that welcoming people in, even at the risk of it being messy, is deeply part of what we are being called to do.
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Center Class
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Our culture, media, and politicians blame poor and working-class white people for racism, often without recognizing that middle- and owning-class white people disproportionately support policies and practices that uphold white supremacy. We reject the harmful stereotypes and the analysis that poor and working-class white people are responsible for racism. The people who benefit most from racism and white supremacy are the very wealthy — not poor or working-class white people.
History tells us that poor and working-class people of color and white people have been at the front lines of anti-racist struggle for generations. SURJ is committed to supporting the leadership of and organizing in poor and working-class communities. We need people of all class backgrounds in this work. |
