Being accountable

Friend,

As many folks and organizations are aware, 350PDX is a white dominant organization, by a large margin. Our mission states that we want to build a movement that is “diverse” and focused on “justice.” However, in the wake of a national and global outcry around the injustices that are perpetuated on a daily basis against African Americans in this country, we recognize that we have failed to show up and need to do better. The movement building, community organizing and models of activism that fuel our organization are modeled after the Civil Rights Movement, yet we haven’t put much effort into supporting that continuing battle that is raging right outside our doors.

We need to do better. We need to not just acknowledge that white supremacy culture exists, but do the hard detailed work of eradicating it from within ourselves, our workplace, our organizing teams, our campaigns. To our black and brown volunteers, staff, and partner organizations that we have harmed in our perpetuation of white supremacy cultural norms, we sincerely apologize. We promise to hold ourselves accountable to doing the hard work that needs to be done to dismantle white supremacy and create a safe and just place for you, not just within the 350PDX community or in the climate justice movement, but systemically within our governmental institutions.

Here is what we commit to:

• What we’re doing for the moment
  • Continue to share and organize our base behind the demands of black-led local organizations, including to reduce and redistribute the police budget, defund transit police, defund the Gun Violence Reduction Team, and other demands – [take action here]
  • Respect that this is not only one moment, but that the success of the climate movement will always be tied to Black liberation, and our campaigns should be influenced appropriately [more about this connection in this article and this video]
• What we’re doing internally
  • Interrogate how anti-Black bias shows up in our staff, board, and volunteer spaces, and prioritize organization-wide training and education on uprooting it
  • Continue to implement our JEDI Plan, but with priority given to holding ourselves accountable to centering frontline leadership & plans for how to carry forward some of the work that we don’t have the skills to implement
  • Asking all of our teams to examine how white supremacy cultural traits show up in our organization, and uproot them by prioritizing learning/unlearning, training and action
  • Revisiting our values as part of our strategic planning process, recognizing where we’ve erred from them and planning how we can better live them

We are grateful to all those who push us to be better. We know that is hard, exhausting work, and we will live up to the faith you have shown in us. Thank you, and let’s keep up the fight together!

In true solidarity,
350PDX