SURJ-TC Newsletter 10/31/24

The City of St. Paul is actively engaged in an ambitious, multi-year effort which will lead to reparations to descendants of slavery and their families and communities.  

The City Council established the St. Paul Recovery Act Community Reparations Commission in January 2023 and in March 2024 the commission began meeting in monthly open sessions.

Several overlapping steps are in the works:

1. Identify the damage to American Descendents of Slaves (ADOS) caused by the City of St. Paul through its policies, ordinances, regulations, and practices.  This is called the Harm Report.  It requires a thorough review of every city department’s actions, possibly going back to the founding of the city.

2. Establish a Redress Fund and a clear process for people to apply for reparation cash benefits to people who’ve been harmed by the City.  

3. Set up sources of income for the Redress Fund.

4. Host community listening sessions, to begin during Black History Month (next March).

5. Resolve a legal question:  “Whether any advice, policy or proposal brought forth by the Commission would be legal under current law if it focuses exclusively on Descendants of Chattel Slavery”.  As we know, there have been many legal challenges to programs like affirmative action, which have benefited those traditionally left behind by racialized capitalism.

One possible revenue source for Redress would be a Slavery Disclosure and Redress Ordinance. This would require each business which has or wants to have a contract with the City of St. Paul to investigate and disclose any historical links to slavery and the slave trade.  The company  would be required to contribute to the Redress Fund, administered by the City of St. Paul for the citizens of St. Paul or be unable to do business with the City.

Currently, the commission’s time-line anticipates introducing this ordinance in December 2025, for passage in January 2026.  The council member most likely to carry the ordinance is Anika Bowie, of Ward 1.  There would undoubtedly be serious corporate pushback.

What can supportive white people do to further the work of the Reparative Justice Commission?  Most immediately, the commission needs an appropriation for 2025!  They anticipate that the Harm Report will cost $500,000 as a starter, and at the moment the mayor’s budget includes no money for the Reparative Justice Commission at all.  If you live in St. Paul, write your City Council member advocating for this allocation as soon as possible!  

Attend the meetings of the Reparative Justice Commission. They are held on the fourth Wednesday of each month from 6:00 to 8:00 pm at Rondo Public Library, University Avenue and Dale Street in St. Paul.  Keep up with what’s going on!

No matter what happens on November 5, we’re going to need each other. Join SURJ-TC  for community building to sustain us in creating the world we want to live in. Together we can fight for our deepest longings while also taking care of ourselves and each other. Join us for one or all of these community building opportunities to support your body, mind, and heart.

We will ground our work together in the somatic practices and guidance of Prentis Hemphill who reminds us that “when we focus on external change without tending to internal transformation, we act out the worst of ourselves in the places where it matters most.” – What it Takes to Heal

We’ll practice movement as medicine, food for the soul, music to heal our hearts, courageous conversation, and more. Let’s set ourselves up to keep turning toward each other and building trust in relationship as we prioritize community care this fall and beyond.

If you have interest in one or all of the above, let us know by signing up here: REGISTRATION. We’ll take care of the rest and get back to you shortly!

Please email Mary Ellen with any questions: maryellenkav@gmail.com

Facilitating Racial Equity Collaborative Annual Overcoming Racism Conference

Friday November 8th, 8:30 to 4:30, at Metro State University in St. Paul

This year the conference is focused on reparations.  Keynote speakers are Rev. Jim Bear Jacobs and Rev. Pamela Ngunjiri.  The conference will provide information about the harm created by past and current practices and policies, and the work being done to repair the harm.  Workshop sessions consider reparations in 10 different areas:  health care, education, housing, criminal justice, government, and more!

Politicized Somatics for White-bodied People: Practices and Community for Embodying our Racial Justice Values

(Starts January 18th – meets 9 Monday evenings from 6:30-8:30pm)

How do systems of supremacy manifest in and between our bodies? How can we grow community capacity to tend to those embodied roots of our white patterns, and cultivate loving / accountable relationships that can support real change over time? Join us for a cohort-based, embodied exploration of these questions. Hosted by Rachel Joy Somatics. 

Details here and registration here. Questions? Contact Rachel Svanoe Moynihan at racheljoysomatics@gmail.com. 

Interested in future groups? Fill out this form

SURJ-TC works as a local chapter for SURJ National.  Our work is local and so are our volunteers. Within this volunteer-driven culture, we strive always to make our work as transparent and non-hierarchical as we know how while holding ourselves accountable to organize white people to build the political will to end white supremacy and implement our theory of change (i.e., self-education, action, and calling in more white people). 

We welcome volunteers in our working groups and teams and can offer a variety of tasks and areas of interest. Currently we have the following opportunities available: 

• SURJ-TC Communications Working Group is looking for volunteers to help with monthly email set-up and social media posting support. We are also looking for someone to help with website maintenance.

If you’d like to find out more or are interested in other ways to get involved, email showingupforracialjusticemn@gmail.com.

SURJ-TC is now able to accept online donations via PayPal! Visit our donate page and click the “donate” button to set up your one-time or recurring donation!

How will your donation be used? We are an all-volunteer group, and your donations will be put to good use, to help our chapter cover things like:

• Compensating BIPOC partners for their time reviewing SURJ-TC curriculums
• Supplies and shipping costs for movement projects
• Occasional chapter program costs
• Basic monthly operating costs such as Zoom, our database, e-newsletters and action reminders, and our website.

SURJ-Twin Cities Chapter:  Learn more – SURJ-TC is a Minnesota chapter of Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ). SURJ is a national network of groups and individuals organizing white people for racial justice. White people have been told for years by Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) activists that we need to educate and organize our own people. So that’s what we try to do. Learn more at www.surjtc.org. SURJ-TC is one of 150 chapters and affiliates nationwide. Learn about SURJ National at surj.org.

Looking forward to seeing you soon!

In solidarity,

Your friends at SURJ-TC