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This is our newsletter to keep the community updated on our latest events, findings, and initiatives. Interested in getting further involved? Visit our website to learn more!
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Monthly Meeting February 10th @ 6:00 PM PT
Dear Unity Coalition Members,
Please join us at our monthly meeting on the second Thursday of the month, February 10, at 6 pm. The meeting is important because we will be reporting on what was accomplished in 2021, what our goals are for 2022, what support is needed from members, and what needs to be accomplished in order to consider the year a success. One of the Chairs of each of our five committees will be making a report and members of the Steering Committee will discuss how we have tried to improve our stewardship of the organization. This will be an opportunity for members to help shape the future of the Unity Coalition; to help decide which issues we should be working on; and to get questions answered.
The Steering Committee believes that the Unity Coalition can have an enormous impact in the work that we do. We need more members to be actively working on committees, helping us form collaborations with other organizations, aiding in the administrative work, and assuming leadership roles if we want to be effective in bringing about change. If you are a social activist, please join us at the zoom meeting on 2/10. Register for the meeting by emailing sfunitycoalition@gmail.com
Thank you,
Malcolm Gissen and Howard Lindsay
Co-Leaders
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Watch the Replay of our Last Discussion!
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At last month’s coalition meeting, we had a very thoughtful and thought-provoking presentation from EJ Toppin of the Othering & Belonging Institute on the topic of Reparations: What is the true nature of American resistance to it and how can we uproot it? Watch the replay of the discussion here!
Follow-up links on Reparations recommended by Mr. Toppin: Hear testimony to the CA Task Force on Reparations by Dr. John A. Powell
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Upcoming Committee Meetings
With so many initiatives under our belt, please take a moment to sign up for one of our action committees. We need your support! See below for details of each committee meeting date and contact sfunitycoalition@gmail.com for meeting access.
ALL TIMES ARE PACIFIC
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Monthly Membership Meeting
Thursday, February 10, 6:00 PM
Sign up
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Community & Economic Development
Thursday, February 24, 6:00 PM
Sign up
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Health & General Welfare
Thursday, February 17, 5:30 PM
Sign up
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Civic Engagement
Thursday. March 3, 6:00 PM
Sign up
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Criminal Justice & Prison Reform
Tuesday, February 22, 5:00 PM PT
Sign up
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Interested in learning more about each committee before signing up? Visit our website to learn more.
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Health and General Welfare Committee - Join us on February 17 at 5:30 PM PT!
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Criminal Justice and Prison Reform Committee:
Upcoming CJPR meeting with Speaker Series featuring Earl Simms on February 22 at 5:00 PM PT
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The Criminal Justice & Prison Reform Committee of the San Francisco Black & Jewish Unity Coalition is honored to announce that speaking at our next monthly meeting on Tuesday, February 25 at 5 pm will be Earl Simms, the Bay Area Regional Director of the Timelist Group, an amazing nonprofit organization that works to rehabilitate incarcerated people and provides a range of services to formerly incarcerated people, including providing housing, to help them succeed. Earl was raised in Los Angeles and was convicted of a gang-related homicide as a young man. He served 22 years in California prisons and was paroled to Oakland. He has devoted his life to working to reduce violence including working with gang members to show them a different path from the one that Earl himself experienced. Earl will talk to us about his life and why the work he does is so important. He will discuss changes in the criminal justice system that will help reduce mass incarceration and how we need to change the reentry process to welcome formerly incarcerated people into our communities and to help them be accepted back into society. Earl will also focus on what we audience members can do to support these efforts.
Earl Simms is the Bay Area Regional Director of the Timelist Group, a 501(c)(3) organization that provides rehabilitation courses for those currently incarcerated, and housing and supportive services upon release. Learn more about his story here!
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Join our Next Community and Economic Development Meeting on February 24th at 6:00 PM!
Intrigued by EJ Toppin’s presentation last month on Reparations? Interested in taking action? Join us at our next CED committee meeting via Zoom. We’re looking for a few more active members eager to explore the subject of Reparations and help plan our educational forum and work on outreach.
Black members, we especially need you! Contact us at sfunitycoalition@gmail.com.
If you have time for one article about the California reparations movement, it should be this one: "If not us, then who?": Inside the landmark push for reparations for Black Californians (The Guardian, January 9, 2022)
AB 3121’s California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans holds their first field hearing in San Francisco in April (if Covid doesn’t get in the way). February’s virtual hearing was a Black History Month Commemoration, honoring past and current advocate movement leaders. The March virtual hearing focuses on the Criminal Justice System, the War on Drugs, and Mass Incarceration. Every meeting starts with the public comment period that welcomes your voice. Watch videos of past expert panels and sign up for notices here.
The San Francisco Reparations Advisory Committee meets monthly. Next hearing is March 14. Sign-up here to attend via Zoom.
This is happening! Get on board!
Evanston (near Chicago) reparations: 16 recipients selected to receive $25,000 for housing (ABC 7 Chicago reporting from January 12, 2022)
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CALLS TO ACTION:
Voter suppression phone banks with Common Cause: We'll be calling voters in targeted states and connecting them to their Senators to drive calls of accountability and appreciation around the vote on the Freedom to Vote H.R. 40. Check out this letter to House Leadership endorsed by many organizations and individual activists!
Action items from the Center for Common Ground including a phone bank (Black Texas voters for March 1st) and anti-utility monopoly activism opportunity in Virginia.
Social Media Toolkit from Human Rights Watch : This toolkit includes sample tweets, celebrity handles, hashtags, and everything else you need to get the word out and promote passage of H.R. 40 via the platform of your choice. Read more from the media toolkit here
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What Progressives Don't Know: How Biden is Transforming the Judiciary
By Malcolm Gissen
Many progressives are unhappy with the Biden Administration. They should be very happy if they tracked the many actions that every Cabinet Secretary appointed by President Biden has taken in areas ranging from national parks; conservation; environmental protection; and climate change to trade, agriculture, labor, and antitrust. When you look at Biden’s appointments, they are the most diverse in American history and the area that is most diverse is the judiciary. At a time when Biden is about to appoint the first Black woman justice to the Supreme Court, few Americans know much about the appointments Biden made to the bench in his first year in office. The federal judiciary consists of federal district courts in every state. They are the trial...
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Community Events Calendar
Learn more about upcoming community events by clicking the button below. A few events are listed below as well.
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Anti-Racism Resources for White People
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 This document is intended to serve as a resource to white people and parents to deepen our anti-racism work. If you haven’t engaged in anti-racism work in the past, start now. Feel free to circulate this document on social media and with your friends, family, and colleagues.
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Ways to Support Black Owned Businesses in the Bay Area
Check out this article to learn more ways you can show your support of Black-owned businesses by patronizing these businesses whenever you can.
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Keep Updated with the SF Unity Group
Make sure to like our Facebook Page, follow our Instagram and Twitter and visit our website to keep updated on our latest events, findings and initiatives. For additional questions or inquiries, do not hesitate to reach out. You can contact us using the button below!
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