Our November Racism is Real dialogue is an opportunity to get to know our new Co-Directors, Bethany Stewart and Courtney Anika. Join us on Facebook Live on Monday, Nov. 27 at 7-8pm ET / 4-5pm PT: 
https://www.facebook.com/events/867259398089510 

A conversation between two Black femmes imagining a world that centers equity and belonging.
​After the event, the recording will be posted here. 

Celebrate our New Co-Directors and help us meet our $10,000 fundraising goal to deepen our roots: https://www.flipcause.com/secure/cause_pdetails/MTk2MzY3 

Join us on Tuesday, December 5, 7:30-9:00 pm ET for Healing White Body Supremacy
Our December Racism is Real conversation will be facilitated by ROJ Trainers Kyle Sullivan and Drick Boyd

Objectives: 
- For attendees to have a more comprehensive understanding of how racism impacts and harms white folks ability to be fully human from the individual to the systemic. 
- For attendees to have practical tools to be with and heal the ways racism impacts their internal and embodied system for the purpose of partnering with the oppressed to dismantle all forms of supremacy in the collective. 

Please register to join us. Registrants will receive all of the details straight into their inbox, plus a link to the recording after the conversation. 

Our September conversation built upon our April dialogue, which provided a brief history of the Doctrine of Discovery; described the impact on Indigenous and African people- past and present, and explored ways we can come together for our collective healing.

This September Racism is Real conversation offered two sacred spaces/breakout groups for BIPOC and White people to reflect on the topic and their experiences. The BIPOC caucus featured ROJ trainer Thulani Conrad Moore with Dr. Kyle Mays and Dr. Edward Valandra. The White caucus featured ROJ trainers Rev. Lorie Hershey, Dr. Drick Boyd, and Rick Derksen.

This event took place on Sunday, September 17 4-5:30pm PT / 7-8:30pm ET on Zoom (not on Facebook Live).  Participants joined their group's caucus after (re)watching the April conversation.

This event was not recorded in order to protect the sacred space. 

Our participants: 
Edward C Valandra, Ph.D., is Sicangu Titunwan, born and raised on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation. His research focuses on the national revitalization of the Oceti Sakowin Oyate (People of the Seven Fires, commonly called the D/L/Nakota people) and the development of Native Studies. Dr. Valandra is the founder and Research Fellow for the Community for the Advancement of Native Studies (CANS), a Native-government-chartered, research-based, reservation-rooted organization.

Kyle T. Mays (he/his) is an Assistant Professor of African American Studies, American Indian Studies, and History at UCLA.  He is the author of Hip Hop Beats, Indigenous Rhymes: Modernity and Hip Hop in Indigenous North America (SUNY Press, 2018). His most recent book is An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States (Beacon Press) which argues that African enslavement and Indigenous dispossession have been central to the founding of the United States, and explores how Black and Indigenous peoples have resisted U.S. democracy from the founding of the U.S. to the present.

ROJ Trainer bios are available here. 

Check out these books by our panelists! 
Colorizing Restorative Justice: Voicing Our Realities (2020, Living Justice Press) - edited by Dr. Valandra, with essays featured by Rev. Michelle, Erica, and other women of color: https://livingjusticepress.org/product/colorizing-restorative-justice-2/

An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States (2021, Beacon Press) by Dr. Kyle Mays (affiliate link)
https://bookshop.org/p/books/an-afro-indigenous-history-of-the-united-states-kyle-t-mays/16258852?aid=83165&ean=9780807011683&listref=roots-of-justice-collective-recommends

Facebook Live conversation with members of the ROJ Collective and friends 
Thursday, Aug. 24 at 4pm PT (7pm ET)

This Racism is Real conversation was led by ROJ Trainers Maati Yvonne Platts and Thulani Conrad Moore and featured youth activists Nurah Abdulhaqq and Erin Gill-Wilson. 

​This is a free event, and we ask you to support our work with a $10-20 donation to continue to make important conversations like this one possible. 
Please give here.
Join us on Facebook live: facebook.com/RootsOfJusticeInc

Thank you to Mosaic Mennonite Conference who sponsored this dialogue! 
​
Click on "read more" below to watch the recording.

By Thulani Conrad Moore, ROJ Trainer 

The Supreme Court upholds the myth of white supremacy in our constitutional oligarchy we naively call a democracy.

If our analysis of the Supreme Court decision solely focuses on its negative impact on people of color, we overlook the broader implications. The harm inflicted upon people of color is merely the surface-level manifestation or the tip of the iceberg, so-to-speak, of a much deeper issue. This decision serves to reinforce the persistent myth of white superiority and further sustains the very purpose of racism itself—to uphold privilege and power for white individuals, while demanding that the rest of society play along with the illusion of equal access. By solely addressing the immediate consequences for people of color, we fail to address the systemic roots of racism. 

The Supreme Court's recent decision to maintain white male dominance reveals a pattern that has persisted throughout the history of the United States. Contradiction, confusion, hypocrisy, and deception have been instrumental in upholding this dominance.

By Rev. Dr. Calenthia S. Dowdy, ROJ Trainer

I hadn’t intended to write this. It’s Sunday morning, July 2nd, and I’m sitting in my easy chair watching CBS News Face the Nation. Former Vice President, Mike Pence, one of the many hopefuls in the Republican party to be their nominee for President is being interviewed. Naturally he was questioned about the recent Supreme Court decision to end Affirmative Action in colleges and universities.

​When asked if fundamentally he believed there was racial inequity in the education system in the U.S., Pence responded by saying... “I really don’t believe there is, I believe there was, there may have been a time when Affirmative Action was necessary simply to open the doors to all our schools and universities, but I think that time has passed, and we’ll continue to move forward as a color-blind society which is really the aspiration I believe of every American.” Pence went on to try to quote Justice Sandra Day O’Connor in 2003, saying, 

By Thulani Conrad Moore, ROJ Trainer

In our ongoing struggle for racial justice and antiracism, we find ourselves constantly sidetracked by distractions that prevent us from addressing the root issue – systemic and institutional white male dominance.

While efforts have been made to promote diversity since the late sixties and early seventies, from diversity training to sensitivity training and DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) initiatives, we still witness the perpetuation of white male dominance within our country's systems and institutions. Take a quick look at the makeup of the current US Senate, for example. This blog post aims to shed light on the persistent distractions and unveil the importance of focusing on interrupting white male dominance.

What we saw in Charlottesville:
The events in Charlottesville a few years ago, where young white males marched with tiki torches, showcased the deep-rooted fear within white male communities. Their chants of "You will not replace us" and "Jews will not