Category: Racial Justice

UU FaithAction Honors Sally Pillay

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On Sunday, February 10th during the Justice Policy Update Conference, UU FaithAction honored First Friends Director, Sally Pillay.  First Friends of New Jersey and New York’s mission is to uphold the inherent dignity of any immigrant who has been detained as well as any asylum seeker.  They coordinate volunteer visitation, aid with resettlement and are active and vocal advocates of the immigrant/asylum seeker community.

Sally Pillay, departing Director of First Friends and Ted Fetter, Chair, UU Immigration Justice Task Force

Sally Pillay is the out-going Program Director and has been with First Friends for over a decade.  Ms. Pillay is from South Africa and is required to return to her country of birth due to the current immigration policies.  First Friends, and Sally, have been strong partners in our efforts to advance immigration justice reform.  She will be missed!

Stand with UU FaithAction at The People’s State of the State

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Stand up in support of economic, political, and social justice at The People’s State of the State!

New Jerseyans are still waiting for movement on critical issues like a $15 minimum wage for all workers, drivers licenses for all, marijuana legalization, environmental justice, and a tax code that ensures the wealthiest pay their fair share.

We deserve lawmakers who share our sense of urgency and recognize that now is not the time for politics as usual. Now is the time to create a stronger and more-inclusive state for all residents, not just the wealthy and well-connected.

Together we can create the fairer and more-just New Jersey we all envision. Join us on January 10th outside the State House Annex!

WHEN:  January 10, 2019 at 10am – 12pm
WHERE:  State House Annex
131 W State St
Trenton, NJ 08608
United States

Oppose New Jersey Redistricting

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NJ legislative leaders–primarily Democrats–are supporting a horrible amendment to the NJ constitution, a purely political proposal to increase the ability of politicians to choose their voters.  The usual term for it is “gerrymandering.” It would also embed the two-party system into the state’s constitution, a blatant attempt to weaken third parties like the Green and Libertarian parties. Every group that testified on the proposed amendment this past week opposed it. UUs and our allies should oppose this most recent attempt to codify gerrymandering too. 

Despite the fact that this doesn’t easily fall under one of UU FaithAction’s six issue areas, it flies directly in the face of our 5th Principle: “The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large.“

For example, the amendment not only gives the sitting Senate president, House speaker, and minority leaders the power to appoint eight members to the redistricting commission.  It also requires that four of those appointees must be sitting legislators. This would clearly empower elected officials to have an oversized influence on who votes in their own or their own party’s races.

Furthermore, an analysis by the Princeton Gerrymandering Project demonstrates that in creating districts that the amendment calls “competitive” could actually lead to an overrepresentation of the majority party in the legislature. 

While the proposed amendment would mandate respecting “communities of interest”, there are no protections for racial equity and too few public hearings to establish truly representative communities of interest.

Additionally, the explanatory paragraphs that describe the amendment on the required statewide ballot are also misleading: they give no hint of the radical change to representative democracy this amendment entails. What seem like “motherhood and apple pie” goals are more like poisoned apples presented to an innocent public.

Finally, New Jersey would be much better served by a non-partisan redistricting process like California’s, rather than a partisan (even if bipartisan) process designed to protect incumbents, party loyalists, and further entrench the Democratic and Republican parties themselves.  Our partners at the League of Women Voters proposes such a non-partisan process in their Fair Districts New Jersey Project. 

Please make it a priority!  Call or write your senator and assembly members to oppose SCR152 and ACR205 (and earlier SCR43 and ACR60).

 

What You Can Do:

1. Send an email to your legislators letting them know New Jersey deserves a fair redistricting process and fair maps!

2. Call your legislator’s district office to voice your opposition to SCR152/ACR205. Review our sample script and talking points here

3. Visit the League’s “Partisan Gerrymandering” resource webpage and learn more about the undemocratic proposals being fast-tracked through the Legislature

Thank you for your attention to this very important issue!

Institute of Social Justice Rally for the 94%

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Ninety-four percent of Black voters cast their ballots for Governor Phil Murphy in 2017. Without this support from the Black community, it is unlikely that Phil Murphy would be New Jersey’s governor: Fifty-three percent of white voters supported his opponent. But nine months into his administration, Governor Murphy has not focused on critical issues facing the 94%.

Read More “Institute of Social Justice Rally for the 94%”

Policy Briefs and Positions 

Organizing Info Policy Briefs News and Blogs Resources Organizations

Please call your legislator, the governor, or the responsible agency to make your position known.

Energy

Forestry

Regenerative Agriculture

Green Amendment

Budget

Water

Plastics

Board Statement on Dismantling Racism

Unitarian Universalists have long been spiritually and morally committed to the elimination of racism and oppression. We have a long history of coming forward to answer the call for racial justice, and UUs have shed their blood in these struggles. In this we are motivated by the moral imperative of our covenant to affirm and promote the principles that are the uniting basis of our faith community.

  • The inherent worth and dignity of every person
  • Justice, equity and compassion in human relations

The work to eliminate racism continues to be a litmus test of the strength of our principles and the authenticity of our faith.

The appearance and practice of racism in our society has in many ways radically changed, yet its basic manifestations remain the same. The illusion of a “color blind” society after the victories of the great civil rights movement and the historic election of an African American president has fully dissolved. Even though attention is being paid to the continuing epidemic of unpunished killings of people of color by police, it took a series of increasingly disturbing incidents before anyone paid attention to a long-established pattern of violence. This demonstrates that we have far to go to address the problems of racism. While it could be unfair to compare police killings to lynchings, the simple fact is that the rate of such killings in the last 15 years matches or exceeds the rate of some 5,000 recorded lynchings between 1882 and 1968. About 60 of these have been recorded to be of victims while in police custody. Currently the rate of police officer killings of people of color is reported to be at a rate of about two or more per week in the United States. The divide that exists between the criminal justice system and people of color is not an accident. It is a direct result of institutional racism.

This seemingly easy and all-too-common resort to lethal force in the moment of confrontation between police and persons — usually men of color — is only the most brutal aspect of the “New Jim Crow”. To the cry ”Black Lives Matter” we hear the casual and cynical reply “All Lives Matter.” The problem with proclaiming that all lives matter is that it denies the particular need to focus on black lives. Fundamentally, until our society accepts that black lives matter, the call that all lives matter is simply a denial of reality based on the limited experience of privileged people.

A basic condition of American racism is that the realities of life of people of color are not known well enough. In all aspects of American life, already drowning in inequality, people of color, as a group, continue to be victimized in the denial of human and civil rights, employment and income, health, reproductive services and life expectancy, wealth accumulation and home ownership, and in de facto residential and educational inequality and continued segregation. African American author Neely Fuller, Jr., has written,

“No major problem that exists between the people of the known universe can be eliminated until racism is eliminated.”

Racism continues today to be a key, interactive force affecting all issues in the struggle for social progress. Issues of race and racism infect all issues that the UULMNJ and Unitarian Universalists feel strongly about. From Criminal Justice Reform and ending Mass Incarceration to Fair Housing, to Immigration, to Gun Violence, to Health Care, to the Impact of Environmental Degradation, it is crucial for us to recognize that people of privilege experience these issues in an utterly different way from people of color. We must commit to expanding connection and understanding in order to unleash the full transformational power of a multicultural, multiracial alliance for meaningful and lasting change.

We continue to work to build the Beloved Community of all people, regardless of race, regardless of economic condition, regardless of sexual preference or gender identity, and of other seeming differences. The differences among us are not categories for separation; they only serve to show the amazing variations and possibilities of the human race. Seeing, understanding, and appreciating different realities and experiences is the major goal for achieving the transformational power of the Beloved Community.

The UULMNJ will continue to address the dismantling of racism on every issue and in all aspects of its activity. We ask that the New Jersey Unitarian Universalist Congregations we serve join us in this endeavor.

The Boards of
The Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry of New Jersey
The Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry of New Jersey Public Policy Network
April 14, 2015

National Moral Day of Action

by UU FA Office

On Monday, September 12, 2016 (as a part of The Revival: Time for a Moral Revolution of Values) at State Capitols around the nation, at 11 AM in every time zone, justice will roll across the country as faith leaders from diverse traditions, people impacted by poverty, racism, and injustice, advocates, and activists come together rally and to deliver to our elected leaders and candidates the Higher Ground Moral Declaration, which calls on governors, senators, state legislators and candidates for office to move away from extremist politics and policies that benefit the few and move toward policies and laws that are just and fair and guarantee a better life for the majority of the people.

The Moral Declaration that has already been delivered to the RNC as well as the DNC will be read, proclaimed, and delivered to our Governors, US Senate candidates and state party officials. You can show your support in advance by signing the declaration.

At this time, we will not engage in civil disobedience because the first step must be petition.  We will be acting as one to send the same message to our state leaders and through the media to our communities and nation that it is time for a moral revolution of values that challenges the narrow construct of those who purport to represent the, so-called, “religious right.”

We will sing the same opening and closing songs, recite the same litany, and the same chants on the walk around the all US State Houses.

MORE DETAILS COMING SOON!

Join Our Exploratory Racial Justice and Local Policing Group

by UU FA Office

More than thirty UUs from multiple congregations across New Jersey joined our “crisis call” Tuesday, July 26.  Following the ongoing police violence against people of color, and the beginning of a violent backlash against police officers, the UU Legislative Ministry called for a faith-rooted policing initiative deeply rooted in our UU commitment to justice, equity and a desire to end the structural effects of 250 years of racism. Participants included mothers of police officers, Legislative Ministry task forces chairs, ministers and congregants from Summit, Montclair, Monmouth County, Palisades, Princeton, Washington Crossing, Morristown, Ridgewood, Paramus, Somerset Hills, Hunterdon County, and Plainfield.

Callers shared ideas that ranged from minority law enforcement hires in municipalities and more cultural training opportunities for police, to showing up when events and rallies are planned and moving forward with legislation with a racial justice impact. Many want to reach out to Black Lives Matter organizers and other racial justice groups to see how we can best support the work they are already doing. Others site the need to don our traditional yellow shirts and show up with love. The sentiment that every caller shared is that something has to change.

We are heartened by this response.  We are forming an exploratory Racial Justice and Local Policing group to think about how to move from outrage to local, congregation-based and legislation-supported action.

If you are interested in joining this effort, please be in touch with our Executive Director, Rev. Rob Gregson at ExecDir@UULMNJ.org.

You may also wish to explore some of the following links that were shared on the 26th as additional resources:
www.newarkpolicereform.org/
www.freedomnow.movementforblacklives.org/
www.standingonthesideoflove.org/racial-justice/

Many New Jersey towns will be a part of the National Night Out Against Crime on Tuesday, August 2. To find an event near you, visit www.visitnj.org/nj-events/national-night-out-against-crime.

To find out what other congregations are doing to support racial justice, visithttp://uulmnj.org/racial-justice-congregations/
We hope you will join us to help save lives here in New Jersey, and to spread what we learn about local policing and racial justice to other UUs across the country.