Burning Man is one of the most well known cultural gatherings in the world that takes place in a temporary city where everything is provided and shaped by its citizens. Because of this, Burning Man is not only a space of artistic expression and personal transformation, but also a space to learn new skills and strategies for building communities. Burning Man is praised globally for it’s dynamic urban design and joyful artistic culture, yet has done little to address the question of racial inclusion and equity. Burning Man Project says that their mission is to “move Burning Man culture beyond the playa,” and that they “believe it’s more important than ever to ensure Black Rock City is the strongest possible manifestation” of their ethos. As Burning Man continues to expand it’s broad cultural imprint and influence, Black people and people of color must be a part of that vision. Radical inclusion means racial inclusion. For over five years, Burning Man has known it has a shamefully low attendance of Black people and other people of color. Despite pressure from Burners of color who have raised the issue of racial diversity, Burning Man Project’s staff leadership and Board of Directors has failed to take decisive action, even at a time when more and more cultural organizations are adopting strategies for equity and inclusion. When a 33-year-old institution does not confront racism and inequality directly, they are contributing to the problem by their implicit support of the status quo. The Burning Man event has been a transformative experience for me over the last seven years. As the daughter of immigrants who grew up in a working-class Black and Latinx community, I witnessed severe inequality as a child and hateful anti-immigrant sentiments toward my family. I wanted to be an artist since I was a child, yet the culture around me did not reflect people who looked like me. Representation in cultural spaces matters, and cultural organizations must ensure that they create environments where all feel welcome. At my first Burn, I felt a great sense of freedom and creative expression that I had never felt before, and I instantly knew that I wanted other leaders of color to experience Burning Man because the event’s transformative nature can help us imagine solutions for society at large. Join me today in urging the Board of Directors to live up to the principle of Radical Inclusion and actively fight institutional racism through true racial inclusion. For more information, please read my open letter to Burning Man Project’s Board of Directors sent in May 2019, visit: bit.ly/radical_inclusion

Sign the petition: urge Congress to legalize medical marijuana Voters across America have agreed: making medical marijuana available is a compassionate choice for people suffering terrible illnesses and painful disabilities. While Americans in 34 states have access to this treatment option, millions or other Americans do not. Would-be patients are suffering and cannot make medical decisions for themselves. It puts the federal government between patients and their doctors. Sign the petition: urge Congress to follow the bipartisan majority of America and legalize medical marijuana.

Grechario Mack was 30 years-old and suffering a mental health condition. He was allegedly talking to himself and holding a standard kitchen knife, inside a crowded Crenshaw-Baldwin Hills Mall (Los Angeles "Black mall"). Witnesses affirm that he was not attacking or threatening anyone. It is unclear who called the police. Upon arrival, LAPD officers reportedly bounded up the escalators "with every gun blazing" to the second floor where Mack was standing. Two officers, Ryan Lee and Martin Robles, began firing upon Grechario. They didn't even bother to clear the mall. Videos, photos, and reports from the scene include strewn baby bottles and strollers; store windows were shot out, as was the glass railing that secured the second floor of the mall. It is a wonder that mall patrons were not shot in the process. Then-Chief Charlie Beck acknowledged that the officers should have used "less-lethal" force. Grechario fell to the ground but survived the first shots. As he laid there, officers fired additional rounds into his body, killing him. In a rare ruling on March 19, 2019, the murder of Grechario Mack was found "out of policy" by the Los Angeles Police Commission, the civilian oversight body. However, the current Chief of Police, Michel Moore, has indicated that he will not fire or discipline the officers. Since the ruling, community organizations, including Black Lives Matter-Los Angeles, have met with the Chief, sent letters, and launched a call campaign demanding that he fire the officers. Grechario's family has attended Police Commission meetings and spoken directly to the Chief. There have been marches, banner drops, and news stories. Moore has been unresponsive. We know that Grechario was viewed as a threat, not as a man suffering an illness, because he was Black. We also know that the mall patrons' lives were endangered because they were predominantly Black. Police who murder our people must be held accountable. It's the only way that these killings will ever stop. Sign the petition and tell Chief Moore that Black lives are not expendable. #BlackLivesMatter Grechario was a loving father of two daughters.

“Send her back! Send her back! Send her back!” These are the words that the crowd at Trump’s most recent Make America Great Again rally started screaming after Trump denigrated Congresswoman Ilhan Omar yet again with racist, Islamophobic rhetoric. The President of the United States not only continues to abuse the authority of his office to brutalize Black migrants across the country, but he is intentionally targeting one of the few Black politicians of immigrant experience brave enough to take a public stance against his vicious, dehumanizing policies. And by hosting his next upcoming rally at U.S. Bank Arena, AEG is giving him the stadium he needs to do exactly that. Two years into his presidency, we know Trump’s script. When he is challenged, he responds predictably -- tweeting attacks at his opposition that rely on blatant lies and organizing rallies where he can spew the kind of racist language that has empowered his base to carry out acts of violence against Black people across the country. When Trump tweeted that the four Congresswomen of color known as “the squad” should “go back to their countries” he knew what he was doing. As some of the only public representatives willing to call Trump out for the injustices he is carrying out, organizing rallies that rely on racist and xenophobic logic is part of a larger strategy. By galvanizing his base around hate, he intends to undermine the voices of the many people who share his opposition’s values of justice, fairness, and equality for all. Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) has the ability to say no to Trump. In January 2017, Dan Beckerman told his employees that "both diversity and sustainability are two of the core values that we here at AEG live every day and are wholly committed to fostering in our workplace and throughout the world." Yet, he is willing to profit from rallies that are based on normalizing racist attacks on our neighborhoods and families. By hosting his rally, U.S. Bank has demonstrated that they are on board with Trump’s message -- and that they believe Black people have no place or home in this country. With 2020 fast approaching, the least that we should be demanding of the corporations that serve us is that they divest from hate. Join me in demanding that they do the right thing and dump Trump now.

The right to privacy and due process under the law belongs to everyone. Residents, technologists, organizers, activists, artists, educators and legislators are learning the implications of police use of facial recognition technologies. Inaccuracies in the technology for darker skin tones, women, and children place many Americans at risk of having their civil and human rights violated. This is a particularly troubling situation for Detroit, where the population is over 80% Black. This would be the largest experiment on Black people in the United States, in modern times. We don't deserve a justice system regulated by faulty algorithms. We don't deserve a justice system that relies on profiling, and we can’t trust a technology that has proven time and time again that it cannot be trusted. Facial surveillance technology does not keep us safe, in fact it does the opposite. Please support Senator (R) Peter Lucido's Senate Bill 342 (SB342), co-sponsored by Senator (D) Stephanie Gray Chang. The legislation would prohibit law enforcement officials from obtaining, accessing or using any facial recognition technology, along with any information gathered from such technology. Any information obtained in violation of the law would be inadmissible in court “as if the evidence, arrest warrant, or search warrant was obtained in violation of Amendment IV of the Constitution of the United States and section 11 of Article I of the state constitution of 1963.” In effect, the passage of SB342 would impose a total ban on the use of facial recognition technology by Michigan law enforcement. State Rep (D) Isaac Robinson's House Bill 4810, which would create a five-year moratorium on the use of facial recognition technology by law enforcement. HB 4810 will also prevent the use of facial recognition software to obtain warrants or otherwise enforce the law. The prohibition includes footage obtained from surveillance cameras, unmanned aircraft, body cameras, and street and traffic light cameras. The bill was co-sponsored by state Reps. Sherry Gay-Dagnogo (D-Detroit) and Jewell Jones(D-Inkster). Recently, the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners tabled a vote on the use of facial recognition technology to monitor city neighborhoods but approved the use of traffic cameras with the capacity to use the technology. Detroit Police Chief Craig recently admitted to using the technology under a standard operating procedure, through their Project Green Light Program for over a year. Until recently, there had been no public discourse around DPD's use of facial recognition technology. The Detroit Police Board of Commissioners is expected to approve the use of the technology despite public opposition. Serious concerns exist regarding the use of facial recognition technology as it has been shown to misidentify African-American faces, darker skin tones, women and children. It’s time for Michigan to show the world that we respect, and will protect our right to privacy and due process under the law. Urge your legislators to support SB342 and House Bill 4810 BYP100 - Detroit Chapter Black Out Green Light Coalition Detroit Community Technology Project Detroit Digital Justice Coalition Detroit Coalition for Peace

Last week, the Trump administration announced plans for its latest attack on the migrant community -- unconstitutional ICE raids that would begin on Sunday, July 14, in at least 10 major cities across the country. Since he has taken office, Trump has enacted brutal, dehumanizing policies that have separated families at the border, prosecuted and deported people en masse and without due process, and resulted in the deaths and incarceration of adults and children in facilities that can only be described as concentration camps. These raids are part of a larger plan to follow through on one of the worst human rights abuses the United States has seen in recent memory. And Enterprise Holdings is leasing him the vans to do it. Over the course of his presidency, Trump has made it crystal clear what his intentions for migrants crossing the border are. He knows that the terror, suffering and premature death that he has inflicted on the migrant community, many of whom are Black and from majority Black countries, galvanizes and empowers his base, who see migrants as less than human and have carried out horrific acts of violence against our family members, loved ones and neighbors. In a moment when they should be taking a stance against Trump’s genocidal policies, Enterprise Holdings is planning to profit from the pain that these raids will inflict by leasing vans to the Department of Homeland Security that ICE intends to use to steal people from their homes and their families. In its Suppliers Code of Ethics, Enterprise claims that it selects “suppliers and partners who share our values and our commitment to uphold the highest standards of quality, integrity, excellence, safety, legal compliance, and respect for human rights, as well as to respect the customs and culture of the communities we serve.” How can this be when the company is willing to give I.C.E. the vehicles needed to transport people to detention camps that fundamentally violate their basic rights and dignity? Let Enterprise know that enough is enough. They have a duty to stand up for what is right. Sign now to demand that Enterprise stop doing business with the Department of Homeland Security today.

This petition is to appeal to the Department of Education to add a Race Relations class to the high school curriculum to foster greater understanding between students of different backgrounds. America is currently polarized across racial lines, and these divisions are only growing. These biases are fostered from a young age and carry into adulthood. We have always been taught that the civil rights movement was the beginning of the end for racism and that education was going to be the final blow. We were told that diversifying our classrooms would break down racial stereotypes in the next generation. However, it's become apparent that this isn't effective. Very little progress has been made since such efforts began. The problem is clear. Schools are trying to increase the number of minorities in their school, hoping that by simply putting students of varying backgrounds into the same classroom, cross-cultural relations and understanding between students will form on their own. In a perfect world, this approach may work. However, we live in a world where kids are constantly influenced by their surroundings and racial biases form from an early age. Because of this, a passive approach simply won't work. A more active approach is required if any real change is ever going to happen. Diversity is just a series of statistics. It's simply the presence of different backgrounds under the same roof. Diversity is the prerequisite for change. Real change can only happen by means of integration- building a sense of understanding, breaking down misconceptions, and constructing a baseline of trust and respect among students of varying backgrounds. But why a class? For starters, the cause of racism is a misunderstanding between people of different backgrounds. These phobias are only fostered by conversations in households. School is meant to be an environment to learn and grow. Therefore, there is no better place for students to learn about one another than in schools. According to Yale Professor Albert Laguna claimed this is, "One class all students should take." Also, as studies have shown, this class is something that will be most effective early in life. By waiting until college, which is when these classes are currently offered, most prejudices have already been ingrained and cemented into students' thinking. Instead, by offering this class in high schools, we allow students to develop ideas about other races before they have been formed and while they are still malleable. Currently, the only such material regarding race in the classroom is very superficial and spread far and wide. It's time we stop ignoring this critical aspect of our education and dedicate real time towards it. This class has to be included in our schools' curriculum. By continuing the passive approach that schools have taken towards educating students about race and the implications a lack of understanding has on our society, we are contributing to the racial divide happening in our nation. Sign this petition and let us take a step towards giving our students a more well-rounded education that prepares them for a more equitable and understanding society. "Educating ourselves and others about race is an essential step in the process of change." - Beverly Daniel Tatum "We will not move forward in Race Relations if we are comfortable. We must embrace the discomfort." - Robin DiAngelo Summary of Reasons and Advantages for Race Relations Class: Students gain a better understanding of the outlook of classmates from different racial backgrounds The only source of discussion on race is through household conversations, which are often biased. A class will offer students a more well-rounded base of information. Current curriculum passingly touches the topic of race without any depth. Offering a dedicated class will fill a clear gap in students' education Similar courses at the university level are lauded for their impact on students, but they are not accessible to most students. Offering it at the high school level enables all students to take such a class. Racial biases are formed from a young age. Offering a class that delves into race relations will influence a child before prejudices fully develop and become cemented into thinking. References: https://www.cnn.com/2015/11/10/opinions/laguna-race-ethnic-studies-university/index.html https://www.theodysseyonline.com/what-my-race-relations-class-taught-me https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233175919_Raising_Ethnic-Racial_Consciousness_The_Relationship_Between_Intergroup_Dialogues_and_Adolescents'_Ethnic-Racial_Identity_and_Racism_Awareness

In 2014, news broke that the people of Flint, Michigan faced toxic lead poisoning from a contaminated water supply. Being one of the largest scale examples of environmental racism in our country, the consequences were devastating: more than 100,000 residents were exposed to elevated lead levels, including over 10,000 children, which could lead to a lifetime of developmental and physical ailments. The 2016 presidential campaign came and went, with this issue coming up repeatedly on the campaign trail. Flint was a celebrated cause for many public figures. But that didn't bring a solution. Three years later, today, the people of Flint are still at risk. Pipe replacement hasn't been completed in all impacted homes. Charges have been dropped against public officials who were in charge with no clear timeline for a new investigation. And we're still trying to figure out how the crisis got this bad. It's time for a broader national intervention by the EPA, to get to the bottom of the Flint water crisis, and for Congress to make things right. The residents of Flint, who are majority Black and almost half live in poverty, deserve answers now. Sign the petition: Demand Congress and the EPA investigate the Flint water crisis, and then get involved to ensure every resident of Flint has access to clean, safe drinking water.

When Wayfair employees found out that their company was selling $200,000 worth of furniture to Trump’s detention camps for migrant children at the Mexican border, they were horrified. With media reports of at-least six children who have died in ICE custody within the last year, as well as the bone-chilling accounts of the conditions that those children have been forced to endure, it has become increasingly clear how important it is to call these facilities what they are to galvanize the action we need to shut them down: concentration camps. Determined to stand up for what is right, Wayfair workers crafted a letter to the company’s leadership asking them to not to fulfill the order and to make a commitment not to support or profit from “the detention and mistreatment of thousands of migrants seeking asylum in our country.” Wayfair’s response? A letter that states that it intends to continue selling to “any customer who is acting within the laws of the countries within which we operate.” The hard pill to swallow over the course of the last two years has been that just because President Trump mandates an action does not mean that it is in accordance with the laws of this country. Over the course of his presidency, Trump has made it crystal clear what his intentions for migrants crossing the border are. He knows that the terror, suffering and premature death that he has inflicted on the migrant community, many of whom are Black and from majority Black countries, strengthens and empowers his base, who see migrants as less than human. In response to Wayfair leadership’s lack of accountability, Wayfair employees have announced that they are planning a walk-out today. Any person who believes in common decency, dignity, and respect knows that we have a duty to support and stand with them. Civil rights leader, Bayard Rustin, once said “We need in every community a group of angelic troublemakers...the only weapon we have is our bodies and we need to tuck them in places so the wheels don’t turn.” Turning our backs on migrant children means turning our backs on the fight for justice and freedom for everyone this administration has so brutally targeted. Our fathers, mothers, cousins, grandparents and neighbors. We cannot accept this. Show support for the Wayfair employees who are so courageously risking their livelihoods to take a stand for justice. Let Wayfair’s leadership know that they have a duty to respond to the needs and wishes of the people who work for them every day. Sign now and demand that Wayfair stop profiting off of Trump’s war on migrant children today!

Sign now to stand with the Black and Native youth & families who are working to take down the racist "Life of Washington" mural at the SFUSD high school at 600 32nd Ave. in the “Richmond District”, which is on unceded Ramaytush Ohlone Territory. The large-scale painting at this school depicts George Washington standing over the bodies of dead Indigenous people, it depicts Black people as enslaved and docile, and it is a symbol of white supremacy that Black and Native students are forced to walk past every day. It is a, it is a constant reminder that the institution, that is supposed to care for and educate Black and Native youth, them glorifies the genocide, colonization and enslavement of their people. Over three years ago, Amy and Kai Anderson, parent and student at the school that contains the murals, reignited the “Take It Down” campaign. It first started in 1968, with the school's Black Student Union and the SF Black Panther Party demanding that the district remove the racist murals. During that time, in protest, ink was thrown upon the fresco murals and can be seen there to this day. For the past few years, the American Indian PAC listed the removal of these murals as one of their top priorities. As a result the district established a “Reflection and Action Committee” to decide how, not if, the murals were to come down. The committee met and studied the issue for months and voted to have the murals digitally archived and painted over before the first day of school in the fall of 2019. San Francisco’s diverse school board courageously listened to Black and Native students and believed them when they testified about the trauma these murals create for them. The board voted unanimously to follow the committee’s recommendations and paint down the mural (or cover it with panels if it takes more than 3 years to paint down). We are so proud that our school board centered directly impacted student’s voices and voted to “Paint It Down” & give youth a clean slate. However, the work of giving students a clean slate is just beginning. The Washington Alumni Association has vowed to file lawsuits and use ballot initiatives to try to overturn and silence the decisions of youth, families and electeds of color. White nationalist publications like Breitbart have bashed the decision, using the same logic being used to preserve Confederate statues and symbols across the nation. The opposition is hoping that by pushing the School Board to put wooden panels over the mural instead of destroying it, they can one day remove the panels altogether so that things remain exactly the way they are now. We call on the San Francisco School Board to show up for Black and Native youth, to tell them that we hear their voices, we believe them, and we’ll continue to show up for them until we get the clean slate they deserve. Sign this petition to let the board know that you pledge to work with these youth and their families, to show up online or in person as needed, and to lift up and amplify their voices until they get the clean slate they are demanding and that they deserve.

Antavia-Lee Worsham should still be here. Instead, two years ago at the age of just 22 years old, she passed away because she could no longer afford her insulin, a medication that costs companies less than the price of a sandwich to produce. Before Antavia’s death, she was covered under her mother’s high deductible health plan, but aged off of Children with Medical Handicaps (CMH), a Government funded program secondary insurance that covered all of the medication and equipment that she needed to manage her Type I diabetes. This could at times be as costly as $1000 a month. She began borrowing insulin from her grandfather, and then her sister, before they could no longer afford to share their medication with her. It was after she started rationing her own insulin that one day she died in her home as a consequence of diabetic ketoacidosis also known as DKA. Each and every day, millions of people across the country depend on insulin to survive. While insulin has been around for decades, pharmaceutical companies are getting away with charging astronomical prices that place insulin out of reach for millions of Americans. Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi, three of the nation’s largest insulin manufacturers -- are responsible for some of the worst price gouging the industry has seen in recent times, raising their prices by 150 percent in just the last five years. In fact, they are facing a class action lawsuit right now from over 60 plaintiffs who hope the case will expose these companies’ deceptive pricing practices and corporate greed. If you've ever talked to someone who's said they have “the sugars,” then you know which community is impacted by diabetes at the most disproportionate rates. According to the U.S. Department of Health, Black American adults are 80% more likely than non-Hispanic white adults to have been diagnosed with diabetes by a physician; 3.5 times more likely to be hospitalized for lower limb amputations; and twice as likely to die from diabetes. While Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi continue to make millions of dollars in profits from arbitrary insulin prices that keep going up, it’s our aunties & uncles, our grandparents & cousins, and our brothers & sisters who are forced to make the dangerous decision to ration life-saving medication, or to go without it in the first place. Enough is enough. It is completely within these companies’ power to reduce their prices dramatically while still maintaining healthy profits. Yet, at every turn they have denied the fact that they are unnecessarily hiking their own prices, and have refused to comply with the public’s demand that they be transparent about their costs of production. That’s not business -- it’s an abuse of power that needs curbing immediately. The fight for fair, transparent pricing in the insulin industry is the fight for the dignity, health, and safety of the Black community and of our loved ones. Take action to demand that Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi be transparent about their costs of production and lower their prices now! Sign our petition and demand Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi lower the price of insulin now.

Dear Mayor Bill de Blasio, Layleen Polanco Xtravaganza, an Afro-Latina trans woman, died in solitary confinement. This PRIDE month I am saying enough. Layleen should not have been arrested by the NYPD. Even before her arrest as part of a predatory NYPD sting operation, she was struggling with homelessness. From there she was routed through every possible "progressive" criminal court and jail reform project: from a sex work "diversion" court to the Transgender Housing Unit in the Rose M. Singer Center on Rikers when a warrant was issued for her arrest after she missed a "supportive" service appointment. None of these "progressive" reforms that were designed to save her life worked. Layleen died in a cage on solitary after being criminalized for being trans, for being poor, and for engaging in sex work. Jails kill people. But now you are planning on keeping Rikers open until 2026, when the next mayor can keep the jails open indefinitely, after having spent $11 billion to build four new jails! We could close Rikers now without building a single new cage in NYC if we ended the unjust and dangerous practice of pretrial detention. Then, we could devote $11 billion to communities, not incarceration. The time is now. We must Close Rikers with No New Jails. Mayor De Blasio, we call on you to stop your jail plan and commit to closing Rikers with no new jails. I want $11 billion for Black trans women and all oppressed and criminalized communities, not for jails. Art Credit: Vienna Rye (@vrye)