Being Accountable To Our Community
Like many other SURJ groups, we are steadily building relationships with local organizations of color in our shared work for collective liberation. Part of that building is making sure that while we are calling white people into anti-racism work, we are not profiting from the oppression of people of color; but instead we are actively moving resources into communities of color.
Below is a list of Marin organizations led by People of Color (or BIPOC) that we have partnered with. Listing these organizations as “partners” does not necessarily mean these organizations endorse our work. It means we are seeking ways to show up and conspire with them as often and as honestly as possible. We have shifted resources to these organizations in a number of ways including paying speakers of color who come and educate attendees at SURJ events, soliciting SURJ participants for financial support for both organizations and individual organizers of color, and taking on projects/financial/resource support work when asked by these organizations.
This is a form of support that has no strings attached. We seek to alter the dominant funder-recipient power dynamic in which the funder controls the actions of the recipient and demands accounting for all funds received and disbursed. We believe that this relationship is based in white supremacy culture. SURJ Marin envisions a different dynamic based on trust, shared values, and the need to repair the harm that white people and communities have inflicted on people and organizations of color, particularly through monetary dynamics throughout the history of this country. That harm includes a dynamic of scarcity where people of color are often pitted against each other for limited resources. We offer our Accountability Partners funds through relationships and we trust that BIPOC-led organizations know best how to spend these funds and know best how to further racial justice.
We encourage you to support these organizations and follow their work online!
SURJ Marin allocates at least 75% of every dollar raised to these current partners: Multicultural Center of Marin, MC Arts & Culture, and the Marin County Cooperation Team.
