Showing Up for Racial Justice December Action Items

Below is a list of upcoming events and action items related to Showing Up for Racial Justice’s mission to motivate and share transformative education opportunities that sharpen the analysis, organizing skillsand  leadership of white anti-racist organizers and the broader University of Michigan community.

Upcoming Action Items for the Month of December

• December 14, 11 AM
  • United Way of SE MI Returning Citizens Learning Community; Small group session: Networking and future directions. Register here.
• December 17, 12 PM
  • Undoing Racism Workgroup meeting. Register here.
• December 31
  • Deadline for applying to the Anti-Racist Organizer Training Program, a 4-month program, which will be structured around weekly three hour live webinars, and will include important elements like one on one mentorship, grassroots fundraising training, engaging and challenging homework and readings, exciting guest speakers, transformational facilitation, and inspiring kick ass organizers from all over the country.

One-Time or Asynchronous Actions

• WATCH/LISTEN to this great conversation with Angela Davis and adrienne maree brown. Hosted by UC Davis Women’s Resource and Research Center, Topic: 50 Years of Imagining Radical Feminist Futures.
• Drop the charges against the Shelby 5: Protestors were peacefully marching for civil rights in Shelby Township on October 24 when police surrounded, brutalized, and arrested them. Hold the officers accountable!
  • Send a letter through the Action Network.
  • Call Jean Cloud, Macomb County Prosecutor, 586-469-5696; Mark Hackle, Macomb County Executive, 586-469-7001; Mark Harding, Prosecutor’s Chief Assistant, 586-469-5654.
• Take action to demand justice for Breonna Taylor:
  • Make calls to demand justice for Breonna Taylor.
  • Sign this petition to demand that every state pass Breonna’s Law to ban no-knock warrants; add your name right now to call on every state to stop more murders like Breonna Taylor’s, immediately.
  • Sign this petition to pass Breonna’s Law statewide in Kentucky.
  • If you are able, donate to one or all of the following organizations:
    • Louisville Community Bail Fund
    • BLM Louisville
    • Healing for Louisville
  • Need help calling in your community around the righteous anger being expressed by the Louisville community? Here’s SURJ National’s “Calling people in around violence” toolkit.
  • We’re calling on Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear to remove Daniel Cameron and assign a new special prosecutor to indict the officers who killed Breonna Taylor; sign the petition to demand Gov. Andy Beshear drop Daniel Cameron now!
• Sign this petition calling on the Michigan Department of Corrections and others to immediately release Steven Hibbler from serving a life sentence due to an unfair trial; after 25 years of wrongful imprisonment, he deserves immediate justice.
• Sign this petition to demand that the Decolonizing Pedagogies Initiative be instilled within the University of Michigan’s DEI project plans to offer a sustainable approach to retaining diverse ANISHINAABEK, Native American, First Nations, Black Native, Pacific Island, Mesoamerican, South American, Caribbean Indigenous and global Indigenous students and their epistemologies.
• Be a community co-sponsor for the Movement for Black Lives BREATHE Act.
• Take action via the Liberation PAC Action Center to support racial equity and the work of groups like Black Lives Matter Michigan.
  • Tell the Ann Arbor Public School Board to listen to Black students’ demands.
  • Tell Lansing City Council to support the “Invest in the People of Lansing” resolution.
  • Sign on as a community co-sponsor for a Michigan BREATHE Act.
• The Council on Social Work Education’s Commission on Educational Policy (COEP) and Commission on Accreditation invites you to submit your feedback on ways to improve the Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards.

Ongoing Events

• Catch up on UM-SSW Engage series and COVID and Racial Inequities series.
• Join UM-SSW Undoing Racism workgroup meetings.
• Sign up for (and donate to support) Anti-Racism Daily emails/newsletters to continue learning.

If you are interested in joining SURJ-UMICH, you can check out our Maize page for more information about our organization. If you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions, or are interested in joining SURJ next semester (either as a member or of the leadership team) please do not hesitate to contact us at surj-leadership@umich.edu.

You are also welcome to reach out to any of the SURJ-UMICH leaders with questions or concerns at any point in time:

• Lindsey Anderson: lspitz@umich.edu
• Eliot Carter: elca@umich.edu
• Zac Howard: zhow@umich.edu 
• Sophie Ordway: sordway@umich.edu
• Kate Weinreich: kweinrei@umich.edu