Showing Up (for Housing and Racial Justice)
This piece is adapted to add local context from an email blast sent by May Boeve of 350.org on July 19, 2016.
Friends,
It’s hard to know what to do in times like these, with violence, xenophobia, and hate on the rise. As an organization dedicated specifically to working on climate change, we’ve wrestled with how to engage with what feels like a historic moral and political moment.
The climate crisis affects all of us, but it doesn’t affect all of us equally. Climate change dramatically magnifies inequalities like race, consistently hitting Black, brown, Indigenous, and poor communities first and hardest. Climate justice is inextricably tied to the fights against racism, economic inequality, and hate.
This year — with the election dominating the public consciousness, a climate-denying racist on the ballot, a local and national housing crisis, and #BlackLivesMatter protests gaining momentum around the country — we have an opportunity as climate activists to draw these connections. We have an opportunity to show up, and to take a stand against both hateful, divisive political rhetoric and the willful denial of the multiple intersecting crises we’re facing. Our movements are linked, and we can build power together.
We can’t achieve climate justice without the liberation of all people. Everyone deserves dignity and respect regardless of the circumstances dealt in life, and this could not be more true than for Portland’s houseless community.
Everyone deserves a safe place to sleep. Since February, the City of Portland has allowed houseless folks to camp on public property. Now, the City is changing its mind and the approximately 500 people who live along the Springwater Corridor in SE Portland are facing “sweeps” — when police forcibly remove houseless folks from where they are living — starting on August 1st. Many of these folks are elders, disabled, or are young parents and have nowhere else to go. Just like we’re holding the City of Portland accountable for their promises to ban fossil fuel infrastructure, we have to show up and hold the City of Portland accountable for their promises to the houseless community.
With that in mind, here are things you can do in Portland this week:
- Like “Defend Springwater Corridor” on Facebook and attend the “Investigation and Cleanup” Saturday, July 23rd where community activists will help residents clear waste from the corridor and learn more about the conditions of the area. This is an urgent crisis and we have a responsibility to show up to support those who are the most vulnerable right now in our own community. You can read more about the need for climate action to end displacement now on our blog and more background on the Springwater Corridor from Street Roots.
- Support Black Lives Matter Portland and #DontShootPDX. Allies are encouraged to check out Showing Up For Racial Justice (SURJ) Portland and The Marilyn Buck Abolitionist Collective. Black folks ready to fight back against police brutality, white supremacy, and anti-Blackness are invited to a Black Lives Matter New Member Orientation and BBQ on Tuesday August 2nd; membership in BLM PDX is open to Black folks only.
More than ever, standing against hate and for nonviolent resistance is crucial. We are strongest when we spread that message together.
This moment of upheaval and change calls on us to do more — to break out of our comfort zones, to grapple with complexity, and to show up.
See you in the streets,
Mia
This piece is adapted to add local context from an email blast sent by May Boeve of 350.org on July 19, 2016.
