SHOWING UP FOR
RACIAL JUSTICE
WHOWEARE
SURJ SAN MATEO is a group of people who organize, mobilize and educate white folks and other folks with privilege for racial justice in San Mateo County.
We are part of a multiracial movement and the SURJ National Network with over 200 chapters and affiliates in 46 states.
We work with Accountability Partners led by people of color to show up in the ways they request and are supporting issues such as housing justice, immigration rights and reimagining public safety.
Read more about what SURJ San Mateo has been doing in our community in the
May 2021 Advocate Newsletter.
SURJ San Mateo in Action
RWC City Hall
RWC City Hall
Millbrae City Hall
RWC City Hall
Educational Opportunities
SURJ National Meetings
Abolition Action Hours
July 21 @ 12:00 PM
August 18 @ 12:00 PM
September 21 @ 12:00 PM
Join SURJ's monthly Abolition Action Hours to come together to take collective action with our partners in the fight for racial and economic justice. In our one-hour gatherings, we make calls, sign petitions, send emails, and take online action to close jails, defund police, invest in communities, protect Indigenous rights to land and water, and more! You’ll receive training and support throughout the session as well as a community of fellow SURJ members to take action with. All are welcome whether you’re a long-time member or are just hearing about SURJ for the first time!
Anti-Harassment Training
Anti-Asian/American and xenophobic harassment have been on the rise across the U.S. In these one-hour interactive workshops, co-sponsored by Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC) and Right To Be, you’ll learn methodology for responding to harassment by (1) trusting your instincts, (2) reclaiming your space, and (3) practicing resilience. They also offer Bystander Intervention Training for various real-life situations. Click below for more information on these free workshops.
Creating Change Without Cancel Culture
Course Lectures
FOUR Tuesdays | 4:00-6:00 pm
June 7, 14, 21, and 28
Learning Lab with Q&A
FOUR Thursdays | 4:00-6:00 pm
June 9, 16, 23, and 30
Calling In: Creating Change Without Cancel Culture is a transformative four-week course with Loretta J. Ross and Loan Tran which will share practical, immediately applicable ways to build towards a Calling In culture where each of us is more equipped to tackle the problems of our times head-on with more love, compassion, and joy.
Book Discussion
THE FIRE NEXT TIME
June 21, 2022 @ 7:00 PM via Zoom
A national bestseller when it first appeared in 1963, The Fire Next Time galvanized the nation and gave passionate voice to the emerging civil rights movement. At once a powerful evocation of James Baldwin's early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice, this book is an intensely personal and provocative document from the iconic author of If Beale Street Could Talk and Go Tell It on the Mountain. It consists of two letters, written on the occasion of the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, that exhort Americans, both black and white, to attack the terrible legacy of racism. Described by The New York Times Book Review as "sermon, ultimatum, confession, deposition, testament, and chronicle...all presented in searing, brilliant prose," this book stands as a classic of our literature.
Book Discussion
THE WHITE RACIAL FRAME: Centuries of Racial Framing and Counter-Framing
July 26, 2022 @ 7:00 PM via Zoom
Joe Feagin extends the systemic racism framework by developing an innovative concept, the white racial frame. Now four centuries-old, this white racial frame encompasses not only the stereotyping, bigotry, and racist ideology emphasized in other theories of "race," but also the visual images, array of emotions, sounds of accented language, interlinking interpretations and narratives, and inclinations to discriminate that are still central to the frame’s everyday operations. Feagin examines how and why The White Racial Frame emerged in North America, why it has evolved socially over time, which racial groups are framed within it, how it has operated in the past and the present for both white Americans and Americans of color, and how the latter have long responded with strategies of resistance that include enduring counter-frames.
