Hi GRD Campers, Caregivers, and Volunteers! ​

​Thank you for taking the steps to start educating yourselves so that we can take collective action to bring about true organizational change. We recognize that change happens at all levels, individual, group, organizational, and cultural. The following is a preliminary action plan for what we have already identified. It’s subject to change as we learn and grow and find new opportunities to put our learning into action. 

What we’re doing: Individual Level

• We are recommending all our volunteers engage in self-directed anti-racist learning and resources below.

What we’re doing: Group Level

• We’re in the process of setting up an optional quarterly cohort where we can share our individual progress, struggles, action taken, setbacks, and how we are persevering to bring about true change. This cohort is open to anyone who wants to join us, but we want to be clear that our white volunteers need to do the work, and our BIPOC volunteers are not required to carry forth the burden of educating our white volunteers. BIPOC volunteers are welcome to the space, but are not required to participate or do the work our white volunteers need to take on.

• Working with external partners to bring more education and workshop opportunities to our volunteers -- more TBA! 

What we’re doing: Organization Level

• The leadership team is taking a hard look at how we organize and run camp, and who is doing the work and making decisions. We are planning changes in leadership.
• We’re examining how our current systems have created barriers to a more equitable volunteer experience and how we source our volunteers. We are exploring the idea of putting camp 2021 on a hiatus so that we can work through the bigger structural issues.
• We are continuing the hard discussions and are committed to change to bring forth a more equitable camp experience for our campers and our volunteers. Things like...
  • How and where we advertise camp to our campers
  • Camper acceptance processes
  • Volunteer recruiting
  • Stipend programs to eliminate financial barriers for potential volunteers

We are committed to dismantling all oppressive systems, including the ones that impact and shape our organization. As these conversations continue, we’ll share more about our specific actions and commitments. We believe, and know, we can be a more equitable and radical organization that is a fair and safe space for all. We recognize we have only just begun. We want to grow. We want to do more. We want to be better. We want to DO better. We expect this of ourselves and our volunteers.

Ready to roll up your sleeves and dive in with us? Thanks for joining us on this journey! 

Do you have a resource that illuminated your worldview that isn’t listed here? Let us know at [email protected]!

GET STARTED WITH THESE FUNDAMENTALS:

• Jane Elliot’s race and prejudice experiment (brown eyes vs. blue eyes)
• Implicit bias primer
• Why “All Lives Matter” doesn’t help 

Things to watch and listen to:

• EMONITE discussion on racism in the punk scene led by black voices (strong language):
  • ​Part 1
  • Part 2     
• Sister Rosetta Tharpe documentary (mother of all rock’n’roll)
• “Let’s Talk about Whiteness” Eula Biss on “On Being with Krista Tippet”
• The urgency of intersectionality | Kimberlé Crenshaw

Anti-Racist Resource Guides:

• Victoria Alexander
• A Project by the Augusta Baker Chair | Dr. Nicole A. Cooke | University of South Carolina
• Sarah Sophie Flicker, Alyssa Klein
• Institutionalized Racism: A Syllabus

Resources for mentoring youth:

• Supporting Mentees of Color During these Troubling Times
• Supporting Young People in the Wake of Violence and Trauma
• Talking about Race, Racism, and Radicalized Violence with Kids
• Social Justice
• Anti-Racism Resources for All Ages

Recommended Readings:

• So you wanna be an Intersectional Feminist
• Black Voices on Racism in Punk

Recommended Books:

• White Fragility, by Robin DiAngelo
• Waking Up White and Finding Myself in the Story of Race, by Debby Irving
• Stamped From the Beginning, by Ibram Kendi
• Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? By Beverly Daniel Tatum
• Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
• How to be an Anti-Racist, by Ibram X. Kendi
• So You Want to Talk about Race, by Ijeoma Oluo
• Me and White Supremacy, by Layla F. Saad
• The New Jim Crow, by Michelle Alexander
• Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower, by Brittany Cooper
• Reproductive Injustice: Racism, Pregnancy, and Premature Birth, by Dana-Ann Davis
• For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood… and the Rest of Y’all Too, by Christopher Emdin

Spotify playlists:

• Black Queer Proud 
• Black Voices in Punk