As the winter solstice passes, we at White Noise Collective are engaged in the beloved tradition of taking stock of our past year, expressing gratitude for what we have made possible given all that we hold, letting go of that which no longer serves us, and making space for new ways to breathe life into our movements for racial and gender justice.… Read more
SURJ moves funds and resources to many of the same POC-led organizations as WNC. Please see their end of year donation request and offer what you can! -WNC
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Dear family, friends and comrades,
We are all receiving requests for donations for many worthwhile causes. Please consider how much of your giving goes to people of color-led organizing.… Read more
Re-posting this excellent blog by Felicia Gustin of SURJ. Upcoming events also include: 7/2 Families Belong Together – Block ICE and Banner making: Stop ICE Family Separation
We are all feeling outrage over the cruel and inhumane immigration policies that separate families at the border. Trump’s Executive Order is a smokescreen, a distraction, and we have to keep up the pressure.… Read more
“This sacred site represents our living culture and more than 5,000 years of our history. We will not allow our ancestors to be disturbed.”
—Joint statement from Ohlone family bands
Hello local settlers, it is a vitally important and urgent time to tune in to the Indigenous-led campaign to save the West Berkeley Shellmound, learn and understand the profound significance of this Ohlone ancient burial ground and sacred site, and to teach others, and get involved with many forms of support.… Read more
This blog post is written in response to comments and discussion generated at the February 2018 White Noise Collective dialogue, which examined the themes of “Emotional Labor and Difficult Conversations about Race and Gender”. I am grateful to the participants for their frank, vulnerable, and honest conversation. See our website for the guiding questions and suggested readings for the dialogue.… Read more
15 years ago began the US invasion of Iraq. What could an Iraq War Memorial be? How to represent a scale of loss and devastation beyond what individual hearts can hold, what could do (im)possible justice, what would be small, real steps of reparations? How do we learn from other countries, peoples, communities about memory as a practice of becoming more human, a practice of resistance against amnesia as a tool of Empire – with our particular United Statian default settings of tuning out war and often fragmented attention spans?… Read more
Wow, another year has passed, and a new year lies ahead. For many of us, and those of you who participated in our offerings this year, it was an exceptionally challenging and painful year. However, as we came together to reflect on 2017 and vision for 2018 and beyond, we couldn’t help but feel proud about all we — as a small, all-volunteer collective — have accomplished this year:
Carrying on our steady tradition of using dialogue as political practice, we convened eleven dialogues this year. … Read more
Today as many people around the country are gathering and sharing food, many more are also talking about the origins and mythology of thanksgiving, a feel-good story of settler benevolence designed to obscure the real history of land theft and genocide. More than any other time, except perhaps during the 1970’s and the height of the American Indian Movement, people are talking about and showing up for Indigenous struggles.… Read more
We want to share the excellent resources compiled by friends at Catalyst Project and Bay Resistance, and add a few others for educators, organizers, artists, and all people who want to take action this weekend and beyond.
“We have re-entered a time period when white supremacist groups are not fringe or powerless, but connected to, and supported by, the White House.… Read more
WNC Community,
1) From APTP: First off, thank you to EVERYONE for participating in the #DefundOPD Campaign.As we discussed not too long ago in our January dialogue:
Here we are at the start of unpresidented 2017, after the largest inaugural protest in US history, joined by marches around the world. Community organizing and outreach is happening in every state as people prepare for the worst, brace for scary realities on the horizon and work to keep them at bay.… Read more
As part of our annual end-of-year tradition, the White Noise Collective core met in early December to reflect on 2016 — our accomplishments, failures, and growth as a collective — in order to compost old projects and germinate new ones for the year to come.
Chapters – White Noise Collective is National!… Read more
Cross-posted from Catalyst Project:
Dear Friends,
Trump called himself the ‘law and order candidate’. He’s vocally supported “stop & frisk” policies that target Black and brown communities. His ‘first 100 days’ plan includes expanding federal funding for local police, federal law enforcement, and federal prosecutors. And he’s promised to have the Attorney General investigate Black Lives Matter protestors for criminal charges.… Read more