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kyburgSankofa Collective Northwest: On Splitting From PFLAG, QTPOC Centered Organizing, And The Patterns Of Privilege:
secondhandpagan:
swingandswirl:
jenroses:
writeswrongs:
As many of you know, Portland, Oregon is the whitest major city in the United States. What many people don’t know is that Oregon was founded as a white nationalist utopia. Our state’s beloved ballot measure and initiative process, allowing for the citizenry to vote on local and state issues, was first used to pass a constitutional amendment to answer the question of whether Oregon should be a free state or a slave state on our entrance to the union. The state voters voted overwhelmingly to become the only state to BAN Black people from living within its territory. Flashfoward to 2016 Portland is quickly growing more expensive and hostile to its Black and Afrodiasporic populations. There have been numerous local reports on the recent white supremacist gang activity and assaults, including murders of Black and Latino Oregonians. For years, PFLAG Portland Black Chapter was THE FIRST AND ONLY Black Chapter of PFLAG in the nation. The history and living conditions of Oregon required such an organization to exist to meet the needs of the community.
PFLAG Portland Black Chapter was founded in 2009 with the help of the Edwards family, a prominent and active Black family that has pushed the city miles forward in terms of youth violence prevention, care for Black and African refugees, and care for the Black Trans and Queer lives.
In June of this year, the president of PFLAG Portland - Dawn Holt, a cis, het white woman “ally” - closed the chapter, its bank account, and laid everyone off with less than a week’s notice and NO CONSULTATION whatsoever of the Board of Directors or the PFLAG Portland Black Chapter steering committee. We were not informed about this decision and they did not consult us in any way before deciding to vacate everyone’s positions with only days notice.
I was one of the people she laid off - she didn’t even know my name when she handed me a forceful termination letter; she referred to me by my coworker’s name and not just once, even handing me their letter of termination instead of mine. She could not distinguish any of the PFLAG Portland BLACK Chapter employees from each other but knew to vacate our positions. My partner and I were devastated and lost our stable housing when she failed to provide reasonable notice or any accommodation or severance for terminated employees. Now, our organization is struggling to pick up the pieces and rehire everyone without PFLAG Portland, and against the wishes of Dawn Holt of Portland, Oregon. We knew that relationship needed to come to an end if we wanted to continue doing the work of servicing Black homeless youth, LGBT Seniors and our most vulnerable community members.
We have reclaimed and relaunched our org as Sankofa Collective Northwest, with a renewed commitment to representing Black LGBTQ people in this irreparably white city at a time where Black Trans Women are being killed and left on the streets at staggering rates and we as a community are still recovering from the Pulse shooting in Florida. Sankofa as an organization, much like its namesake, is experiencing a rebirth so the needs of the Black LGBT community in Oregon can continue to be met during a time of mass police and white nationalist vigilante violence being committed against our family everyday.
Please share and support our relaunch and get the word out there that Dawn Holt should resign and that Sankofa Collective Northwest carries the mission that PFLAG Portland tried to stop us from accomplishing.
Notes and quotes and receipts in the article above.
To support Sankofa Collective Northwest, donate here.
Signal boost.
hey @copperbadge @wilwheaton @gaywrites signal boost please?
Dammit, Portland.
*growl*
from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2czroit
via IFTTT
secondhandpagan:
swingandswirl:
jenroses:
writeswrongs:
As many of you know, Portland, Oregon is the whitest major city in the United States. What many people don’t know is that Oregon was founded as a white nationalist utopia. Our state’s beloved ballot measure and initiative process, allowing for the citizenry to vote on local and state issues, was first used to pass a constitutional amendment to answer the question of whether Oregon should be a free state or a slave state on our entrance to the union. The state voters voted overwhelmingly to become the only state to BAN Black people from living within its territory. Flashfoward to 2016 Portland is quickly growing more expensive and hostile to its Black and Afrodiasporic populations. There have been numerous local reports on the recent white supremacist gang activity and assaults, including murders of Black and Latino Oregonians. For years, PFLAG Portland Black Chapter was THE FIRST AND ONLY Black Chapter of PFLAG in the nation. The history and living conditions of Oregon required such an organization to exist to meet the needs of the community.
PFLAG Portland Black Chapter was founded in 2009 with the help of the Edwards family, a prominent and active Black family that has pushed the city miles forward in terms of youth violence prevention, care for Black and African refugees, and care for the Black Trans and Queer lives.
In June of this year, the president of PFLAG Portland - Dawn Holt, a cis, het white woman “ally” - closed the chapter, its bank account, and laid everyone off with less than a week’s notice and NO CONSULTATION whatsoever of the Board of Directors or the PFLAG Portland Black Chapter steering committee. We were not informed about this decision and they did not consult us in any way before deciding to vacate everyone’s positions with only days notice.
I was one of the people she laid off - she didn’t even know my name when she handed me a forceful termination letter; she referred to me by my coworker’s name and not just once, even handing me their letter of termination instead of mine. She could not distinguish any of the PFLAG Portland BLACK Chapter employees from each other but knew to vacate our positions. My partner and I were devastated and lost our stable housing when she failed to provide reasonable notice or any accommodation or severance for terminated employees. Now, our organization is struggling to pick up the pieces and rehire everyone without PFLAG Portland, and against the wishes of Dawn Holt of Portland, Oregon. We knew that relationship needed to come to an end if we wanted to continue doing the work of servicing Black homeless youth, LGBT Seniors and our most vulnerable community members.
We have reclaimed and relaunched our org as Sankofa Collective Northwest, with a renewed commitment to representing Black LGBTQ people in this irreparably white city at a time where Black Trans Women are being killed and left on the streets at staggering rates and we as a community are still recovering from the Pulse shooting in Florida. Sankofa as an organization, much like its namesake, is experiencing a rebirth so the needs of the Black LGBT community in Oregon can continue to be met during a time of mass police and white nationalist vigilante violence being committed against our family everyday.
Please share and support our relaunch and get the word out there that Dawn Holt should resign and that Sankofa Collective Northwest carries the mission that PFLAG Portland tried to stop us from accomplishing.
Notes and quotes and receipts in the article above.
To support Sankofa Collective Northwest, donate here.
Signal boost.
hey @copperbadge @wilwheaton @gaywrites signal boost please?
Dammit, Portland.
*growl*
from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2czroit
via IFTTT
