Welcome to the Western Mass Chapter of SURJ
SHOWING UP FOR RACIAL JUSTICE (SURJ)
IS A NATIONAL NETWORK OF GROUPS AND INDIVIDUALS ORGANIZING WHITE PEOPLE 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. For more information about SURJ, please visit the national website.
IS A NATIONAL NETWORK OF GROUPS AND INDIVIDUALS ORGANIZING WHITE PEOPLE 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. For more information about SURJ, please visit the national website.
The Western Mass chapter of Showing Up for Racial Justice is part of a national network of groups and individuals working to undermine white supremacy. Through community organizing, mobilizing, and education, SURJ aims to move white people to work towards racial justice in an accountable way, as part of a multi-racial movement. The Western Mass Chapter of SURJ formed in 2014. Our chapter is composed of mostly white people, largely living in the upper Connecticut River Valley area. In the early years WMSURJ focused on education and conversation around the impacts of systemic racism and the importance of breaking white silence. Organizers from WMSURJ made intentional efforts to collaborate with other local organizing groups like Out Now, BLM 413, Arise for Social Justice, and the Springfield Organizers' Roundtable, and built relationships with individual organizers of color through this work. Members of WMSURJ consistently showed up to events organized by these groups and individuals, all of which helped form a relational foundation that would later support a successful reparations campaign. As the chapter continued our work, we also formed accountability relationships with local organizers of color. Responding to a push from these accountability partners, in the fall of 2017, our chapter embarked on a campaign focused on reparations.
The battle is and always has been a battle for the hearts and minds of White people in this country. The fight against racism is our issue. It’s not something that we’re called on to help People of Color with. We need to become involved with it as if our lives depended on it because really, in truth, they do.
— Anne Braden
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