ANTI-RACIST
INDIVISIBLE TACOMA ANTI-RACIST
GUIDING PRINCIPLES
(Adapted from Colorado Indivisible)
ANTI-RACIST STATEMENT
Indivisible Tacoma is committed to advancing anti-racist policies and actions through everything we do. We cannot stop until every person in this country is treated equitably and humanely, in every system, and throughout our culture.
In order to implement our Guiding Principles, we commit to treat everyone with respect, to be open to feedback and opportunities to collaborate, to self-reflect and to be responsible for our words and actions.
HARM REDUCTION:
Experiencing racism causes profound harm: psychological, physiological, social, political, economic, and environmental harm.
We will find the solution that results in the least harm to Indivisible members, the community, and marginalized peoples. We commit to finding solutions that amplify anti-oppression and justice.
ACCOUNTABILITY:
We have a collective responsibility and duty to eliminate racism. We commit to challenging racist policies, procedures, communication, assumptions, and bias in individuals and society, including in our Indivisible groups.
We will endeavor to take action and follow through when we recognize racism or are asked to intervene in racism.
ADVOCACY:
Racist policies, structures and systems harm millions of people in the U.S. every year, and have harmed millions in the past.
White people have been largely responsible for institutionalizing racism. Thus this group must take responsibility for institutionalizing its opposite, anti-racism.
We commit to advocating against racist policies, structures and systems, as well as against their representatives, agents, and enablers.
We will ensure our work is inclusive, sustaining and informed by our partners, to achieve justice.
We will promote talking points, position papers, legislation and other tools to arm Indivisible groups with knowledge to make change.
We will support and vote for progressive candidates of color who advance equitable and progressive values.
EMPATHY:
All people dehumanized by racism are worthy of respect, caring, compassion, dignity, humanity, and are as complex, valuable, and worthy as people not targeted by racism.
We will build courageous relationships with those who are directly impacted by racism, and to center their needs and concerns around ending racism.
INTEGRITY:
The truth matters, and understanding our history and our reality, matters.
We are truthful, grounded in facts and data about the brutal reality of racism.
We are anti-racist even when inconvenient, uncomfortable and disadvantageous.
We will consistently utilize an anti-racist lens in our words and actions as individuals as well as Indivisible members in all places.
DEEP LEARNING FOR TRANSFORMATION:
Understanding racism and oppression is a long journey. Learning to act against racism and oppression is a skill. When we know better, we do better. Transformative change requires taking risks, which may result in mistakes that should be acknowledged and corrected.
We commit to continuous learning about how to be effective anti-racists to make lasting changes in ourselves and others.
We will provide training and other opportunities that encourage self-reflection and individual meaningful change, as informed by our community partners.
We will commit to obtain skills and core competencies to be better anti-racists.
We will work to provide brave spaces to learn and be challenged, and for Black, Indigenous, Asian, Latinx, and other peoples of color to share their truths and expertise as individuals and communities.
350 Seattle works toward climate justice by organizing people to make deep system change: resisting fossil fuels; building momentum for healthy alternatives; and fostering resilient, just, and welcoming communities.
The ACLU is the nation’s premier civil rights and civil liberties organization. We are the unwavering voice of freedom, fairness and equality for all people in America.
Since its conception, NOW has grown from a grassroots organization to one of the leading feminist activist groups in our nation.
As an organization grounded in the Latino community, our mission is to build unity across all racial and economic sectors, to organize, empower, and defend our most vulnerable and marginalized populations and to bring justice, dignity, equality, and freedom to all the peoples of the world.
Keeping families together, protecting people from violence, and standing up to injustice. We believe access to justice shouldn’t depend on where you are born or how much money you have.
Northwest Immigrant Rights Project promotes justice by defending and advancing the rights of immigrants through direct legal services, systemic advocacy, and community education. We strive for justice and equity for all persons, regardless of where they were born.
Our mission is to assist African Americans and other underserved urban residents in the achievement of social equality and economic independence.
The Black Collective is a community of black people dedicated to civic engagement through volunteer service. Since 1968, the Black Collective has met every Saturday, without exception, at the City Association of Colored Women’s Club House from 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.
Tacoma Mutual Aid Collective works in solidarity with Tacoma communities to support resource, knowledge, and skill sharing across our neighborhoods.
NPAP was created as a non-profit to protect the human and civil rights of individuals in their encounters with law enforcement and detention facility personnel.
The NAACP education committee strives to ensure that all students have access to an equal and high-quality education by eliminating education-related racial andethnic disparities in our public schools.
SURJ is a national network of groups and individuals working to undermine white supremacy and to work for racial justice. Through community organizing, mobilizing, and education, SURJ moves white people to act as part of a multi-racial majority for justice with passion and accountability.
Color of Change is a progressive nonprofit
civil rights advocacy organization in the United States.
Building a cross-cultural and intersectional movement grounded in anti-racism and directed at advancing Black liberation and social justice for all.
The People’s Assembly (formerly known as Tacoma Stands Up) was formed in response to a call for solidarity with organizers in Ferguson following the shooting of Michael Brown.
LegallyBLACK. is dedicated to changing the narrative of Black & Brown people in the media and providing effective methods to evoke change in local, state, and federal laws through the court of public opinion, political networking, media outreach and educating our communities. Legally BLACK. is the go-to stop for groups & organizations on the quest for equality, justice and providing long overdue access to the promised liberties of the American Dream.
Tacoma City Council has passed Resolution 40622 that recognizes our history of racism and affirms a commitment to equity in our community including policing.
You can read the full statement on their website. They also had an interactive workshop on July 23rd taking community input on the city’s budget.
In the exercise the participants overwhelmingly took funds from the police budget and added funds to housing, homelessness and community services.
Not only that but the budget ended with a $30 million surplus!