No Room for Racism, Week #2: Immigration Action Toolkit

Thanks to everyone who participated in the launch of the No Room 4 Racism campaign last week! We had a great response. Thirty organizations or individuals have signed up to be part of the campaign. If you haven’t signed up yet please do by clicking here.

Check out our Facebook page showingupforracialjustice for all the pictures and messages people posted about what they think about stopping the school to prison pipeline and equity in education. Check out our twitter pages #noroomforracism @showup4rj for the messages that people sent about the campaign.

Since the issues we think are important aren’t being covered way we want this election season by the candidates and by the media, we are making sure we bring the messages about race, racism and racial justice to the conversation.

Join us! Take action for racial justice with this weeks toolkit focused on Immigration!
Issue at hand: Immigration is almost always a controversial topic around election time, but in this election it has been called the missing topic. How would the candidates approach the issue? How do we want the next president to address immigration?

The racial profiling parts of Arizona’s SB1070 have been upheld by the Supreme Court. SB1070 copycat laws and S-COMM programs across the country are continuing to break down communities. In the past four years we have seen the highest number of deportations under any President, an average of 400,000 a year.

However, resistance and small victories continue to dot the map. The Undocubus recently traveled the South from Phoenix to Raleigh, with riders pronouncing “no papers, no fear” and using civil disobedience to demand improvement in the United States immigration system. Also, after many years of fierce organizing, the Dreamers led President Obama to sign the Deferred Action Executive Order, which will benefit around 800,000 Dreamers. There is a long way to go. We want to make sure to use this election season to highlight the injustices, the resistance, and the vision of where to go from here.

What we can do: As white people showing up for racial justice, join us in the continued struggle for human rights and human dignity in the fight for human mobility and just immigration. No human being is illegal!

Below are action items that come in various shapes and sizes designed for different lifestyles! Pick an action or 2 or 4 that fits best for you!

2 MINUTE ACTION: In just 1 click you can spread the word

Send a tweet:

• I want a president who will fix the broken Immigration system #noroomforracism
• I want a president who will encourage the passage of the DREAM Act #noroomforracism
• I want a president who will end racial profiling and stop breaking families apart w/ deportation #noroomforracism
• I want a president who will end S-COMM and 287(g) #noroomforracism

 

5 MINUTE ACTION: Sign up and Donate

Sign up for email lists, and donate to leading grassroots immigrant rights organizations:

• Turning the Tide: altopolimigra.com
• Undocubus: undocubus.org
• DreamActivist.org: dreamactivist.org
• Presente.org: presente.org

Take the pledge to drop the i-word.

 

30 MINUTE ACTION: Write a message and snap a photo

Protest Portrait: Contribute to Showing Up for Racial Justice Phoenix’s campaign “Arpaio Doesn’t Speak for me”. Click here to get inspiration from the other posts and then create your own message and poster. For more information about Joe Arpaio click here. This is a great activity to do at the end of a meeting or when you are with your family or friends. Post your photo on showingupforracialjusticesurj on Facebook and ask others to join you!

Protest Portrait: Print off one of these statements and post a photo of you on our Facebook page

Protest Art: Share one of these images on our Facebook page and write a message about what you want to add to the Immigration debate! Thanks to the artists who have offerred to use their artwork for this project. Visit their websites to see more of their art. Past the tinyurl link onto Facebook.

1 HOUR ACTION: Do some writing

Letter to the Editor: Write an LTE about why immigration is an important issue for you and how you want to see it addressed by the next president. Send it to your friends, family, organizations, and to the local papers. Post it on our Facebook page.

Click here for tips on writing a LTE.

Here are some writing prompts:

• I want to see our local police stop collaborating with ICE through programs like SCOMM and 287(g) because……
• I want to see the DREAM Act passed in full because…..
• The upholding of racial profiling through SB1070 does not match my values because…..
• I support the Undocubus and those coming out of the shadows as undocumented and unafraid because……

 

1 HOUR + ACTION: Take a day off your usual grind and spend the day provoking change!

For any action, meeting, or in-person event please take pictures or a short video and upload it to Facebook!

Show me your papers: People have used street theater to dramatize the effects of laws like SB1070 and copycat laws across the country.

Dress in a costume of a police officer. Go to a crowded street where people walk. Stop people who appear to be White European Americans and ask them for their papers or ID s. Ask them about their European ancestry. Ask people if they have heard of SB1070, explain it, and say that your local area is doing something different, you are requiring European Americans to go back to Europe and give the land back to the Indigenous people of that land.

Have flyers to hand out about Immigration and the Indigenous people of the land.

2016: Obama’s America: Get together a small group of people, make some signs, print off some informational flyers, and go down to local movie theater playing the 2016: Obama’s America.

A major premise of the movie is that “you don’t know Obama.” It uses coded language to say that because Obama is Black and the son of an immigrant, that he is not “American” because only white people are American. This is what we call dog whistle racism. People in the film also call Obama a Muslim, in an attempt to tie him to the same message frame used to promote anti-Arab sentiment and the so-called war on terror. This way of framing Muslims others and disrespects Islam, one of the major religions of the world.

Whether you plan to vote for Obama or not, this is a great chance to speak to the vision of the world that you want to live in that doesn’t use racial stereotypes to incite fear, hatred and division.

Show up at a rally where Obama, Stein or Romney are speaking: Have signs and flyers to educate those attending.

• I want a president who will fix the broken Immigration system
• I want a president who will pass the DREAM Act
• I want a president who will end racial profiling and stop breaking families apart
• Obama/Romney/Stein Escucha, Estamos en la Lucha (Listen, we are in the struggle)

Hold a house party to discuss race and the election: Use a short movie, YouTube videos, or the presidential debates to spark the conversation. Use the Ballots and Beyond toolkit for ideas for how to structure the house party and conversation. This is a toolkit put together by Catalyst Project (www.collectiveliberation.org) as a fundraising tool and can be adapted to your locale.

Contact us:

E-mail: showingupforracialjustice@gmail.com

Phone: Jlove: 917-753-0186

Facebook: showingupforracialjusticesurj

Twitter: @showup4rj

Website: showingupforracialjustice.org