Racial Justice Dialogues (School to Prison Pipeline)

https://secure.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/a/5/d/f/600_455682463.jpeg

Criminal Justice and Race series for August-October include: 1. Deeper Than Water: Prison Water Issues and Prison Abolition with presenters from Black Lives Matter Boston and Black and Pink, 2. Prosecutorial Discretions and DAs, 3. School to Prison Pipeline.

Please try to read these resources before the meeting:

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/09/will-school-discipline-reform-actually-change-anything/405157/

http://educationpost.org/school-discipline-doesnt-have-to-be-a-pipeline-to-prison-it-can-be-a-teachable-moment/

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/new-guidelines-target-end_b_13206800.html

These are some books that discuss the School to Prison Pipeline (suggested, optional reading):

1. The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander (http://newjimcrow.com/about)

2. So You Want to Talk about Race by Ijeoma Oluo (https://www.sealpress.com/titles/ijeoma-oluo/so-you-want-to-talk-about-race/9781580056779/) This book lists what factors contribute to it, and action steps one can take to address and confront it.

We will collect donations to compensate the representatives coming from Boston to lead the discussion in August...anything extra collected will be donated to #DeeperThanWater.

Past meeting resources:

#DeeperThanWater is a coalition of organizations dedicated to exposing the rampant human rights abuses that prisoners in the United States are subjected to, using the lens of water justice as an entry point. The coalition was formed in light of the dire conditions in Massachusetts prisons, with particular emphasis on MCI-Norfolk, whose coffee-colored water has made national headlines for dangerous levels of sediment including neurotoxic levels of manganese and outrageous levels of rust that leave prisoners with skin lesions and gastrointestinal distress. Source and more info: https://deeperthanwater.org/

Black & Pink is an open family of LGBTQ prisoners and “free world” allies who support each other. Our work toward the abolition of the prison industrial complex is rooted in the experience of currently and formerly incarcerated people. We are outraged by the specific violence of the prison industrial complex against LGBTQ people, and respond through advocacy, education, direct service, and organizing. Source and more info: http://www.blackandpink.org/

*****

RJD is now part of Boston Knapsack Anti-Racism Group. Go to this site for meeting plans and more comments on each meeting: https://www.meetup.com/Antiracists/

Monthly meeting overview:
Please join in the conversation as we continue to get real about the problem of racism in our world, and move toward personal and collaborative action. Our Racial Justice Dialogues (RJD) are opportunities to talk openly about racism and other forms of oppression in our society. Please join us to continue sharing our experiences, hopes and dreams about living in community beyond race. All are welcome.

• This group meets the first Saturday of each month in the main meeting room on the first floor (the room with a stage). The meeting topics come from a vote done at the end of each meeting.

• Parking is available, and the Worcester Line of the commuter rail stops in Natick, walking distance away. Please let us know your needs so we can help make the event accessible for you.

• Please RSVP if you can come to this meeting, and change it if your plans change. Deb will add +#s to her RSVP to show folks signing up on other sites for this meeting.

• The facilitation is shared each month by two from the five posted as hosting.