This Sunday, Dumbo’s Jay Street Plaza is about to get a lot more crowded as a massive, multi-group march for racial justice descends upon the area and takes to the streets in protest of the multitude of issues affecting non-white individuals in New York City today.
While it’s easy to declare that racism is a pervasive issue, parsing out the specifics of the matter is usually more productive in terms of actually enacting change. The march’s organizers mention systemic problems such as broken windows policing, mass incarceration in places like Rikers Island, lack of affordable housing and gentrification of predominantly-POC neighborhoods, school segregation and the “school to prison pipeline,” immigration, and more.
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“We march because as long as U.S. laws, policies, and practices remain steeped in racism and white supremacy, basic human rights and civil rights for all—our universal and constitutional rights—will never be fully realized,” the organizers wrote. And yet, you don’t have to look far to see recent policy developments from the Trump administration that are directly working against this mission: the dismantling of DACA, new travel bans, lackluster help for a ravaged Puerto Rico, and more local issues like the development of the Bedford-Union Armory.
The march has been endorsed by a large amount of local and national organizations, including the Women’s March, the Democratic Socialists of America’s Racial Justice Working Group, Close Rikers, the National Organization for Women, Jewish Voice for Peace, the African-American Policy Forum, and many others. There will also be a national version of this march in Washington D.C. on September 30 spearheaded by black and indigenous communities.
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Interested folk are asked to gather at Jay Street Plaza at 12:30pm, with a program from 1-3pm and the formal march starting at 3pm. Those interested in volunteering can email m4rjNYC@gmail.com. As always, when attending a large-scale activism action that is likely to draw police presence, it is important to know your rights.
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