Over the past several days we have watched in disgust as the progeny from our nation’s despicable past terrorized a city, committed murder, and received tacit approval from the highest level of government. White supremacy has found a home in the White House. The President is determined to perpetuate and maintain the social, political, historical, and institutional domination by White people at the expense of people of color. And in so doing, he is creating an environment that is also too toxic for White America. The White supremacy movement will not vanish until people of good will succeed in atoning for our nation’s past, reconciling, and building a bridge to a just and fair society where ALL are prospering and reaching their full potential.

America is seeing in real-time what the fight for equity looks like. When cultures, structures, and institutions are forced to change, the responses by those comfortable with and benefiting from the status quo are too frequently ugly, distressing, and violent. Equity leaders should not expect anything less. We signed up for this. Consequently, when things are at their worst, we must be at our best – body, mind, and soul. PolicyLink remains optimistic and single-minded in our work. We are standing strong in the face of formidable opposition because equity leaders, especially those on the front lines, are making progress.

We also are standing strong because we are getting a sense that increasing numbers of White people are sick of other White people's racist conduct. We applaud the fact that from the streets, to corporate board rooms, to charitable giving, White people are taking up the work of equity. We hope we live in a country where most White people do not sympathize with White supremacists. If our perceptions are real, we have an opportunity to accelerate the advancement of equity, and we must seize it. While people of color are going to see this fight for equity through to victory, there is a powerful role that White people must play, and this role can no longer be eschewed for safer, transactional expressions of solidarity.

Show yourselves to be true patriots by joining with people of color, believing in the potency of inclusion, and building from a common bond to stamp out White supremacy and realize the transformative promise of equity – the imperfect and unrealized aspiration embodied in the Constitution. White America, you can perfect this aspiration! To do so requires that you honestly and forthrightly call out racism and oppression, both overt and systemic. And while this is a good start, it is insufficient. Your work is to lead the way in designing and implementing equity-centered public policies, institutional practices, cultural representations, and other norms that trump White supremacy and create a just and fair society. This must be your call to action. This is what people of color need from you.

The normalization of White supremacy must be stopped now before it irreversibly poisons the nation’s culture. Your leadership is critical in this moment. You are best equipped to defeat White supremacy. Here are actions you can take that are transformative.

• Get Informed – Read the New York Times reading list entitled "A History of Race and Racism in America in 24 Chapters".
   
• Fight Online – Join Color of Change and participate in these campaigns.
  • Demand corporate funders cut off White supremacist hate groups. #NoBloodMoney
  • Call for the removal of ALL Confederate symbols from places of honor in America
  • Stop legislation in North Carolina that protects drivers who hit protesters with cars
  • Tell Congress to refuse to side with White supremacists and force Trump to #FireBannon
     
• Show Up for Justice – Visit the Indivisible website to find and join a solidarity event near you.
   
• Lead for Equity at Work – Use your power and influence to transform your organization into a national model of equitable practice. The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Race Equity and Inclusion Action Guide provides practical ways to start.
   
• Vote for Justice and Fairness – Vote for elected officials with a demonstrated track record of introducing and voting for equity-centered policies that improve the quality of life for people who are not wealthy.

Show us that our perceptions of a White majority opposed to White supremacy are real. Show us that we have a reason to believe that you will fight with more devotion to create a society that is just and fair for ALL, than White supremacists will in their pursuit to maintain their structural advantage, their racial privilege, their "whiteness." By accepting this invitation, you’re not doing anyone any favors. You’re doing the work necessary to make America all that it can be. History has its eyes on you. Show us. Fight for equity.

With gratitude,

Angela Glover Blackwell
CEO  

Michael McAfee
President

In response to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch’s (R-Utah) call for input and feedback from tax stakeholders across the country on how to improve the American tax system through tax reform, The Tax Alliance for Economic Mobility submitted the following letter to the Finance Committee that focuses on reform that outs low and moderate income people first, and fuels upward economic mobility instead of exacerbating an already-growing wealth divide.

The letter hones in on four sets of principles for reform of tax-based aid that can lead to more equitable programs that will expand opportunity throughout the country:

1. Increasing Financial Security for Working Families;
2. Making Higher Education Tax Expenditures Work for Everyone;
3. Using the Tax Code to Encourage Savings and Investment for Retirement
4. Reduce Subsidies for Mortagage Debt and Larger Homes Owned by High-Income Households

Read the full letter here and sign up for the Tax Alliance newsletter for updates on our work.

As our communities deal with the spread of the coronavirus, federal leaders must take bold steps to ensure the safety of the public, particularly the most vulnerable among us. While this virus will hit communities regardless of race, income, or zip code, this pandemic will cause both health and economic disruptions that exacerbate the existing disparities for low-income people and communities of color that have long harmed our nation.      

CALL YOUR SENATOR

Please call your senators and ask them to pass the emergency House bill to help us navigate this public health and economic crisis. 

Early Saturday morning, the House passed an emergency bill that would allocate billions of dollars for paid sick leave, unemployment insurance, free testing, and other measures to help those impacted by this crisis. This is a necessary starting point that the Senate must pass now.

Unfortunately, these measures are narrow in scope, leaving 80 percent of workers unprotected. While some large employers are doing the right thing and giving employees sick leave, a national policy is the most effective measure in this time of unprecedented national crisis. We need comprehensive legislation to follow this initial bill to protect all people, especially those with the greatest health and economic risks. 

We Need Comprehensive Public Health and Economic Supports

Today, 100 million people — one in three people in the US — live in or on the brink of poverty where an illness, job loss, or unexpected expense can be financially insurmountable. At a time when officials are urging the public to stay home when they fall ill, millions of people lack paid sick leave and can’t afford to miss work to care for themselves or a loved one. This puts many people at risk for being the vector of an illness that can prove deadly for the elderly and immunocompromised. And as businesses take precautions or are forced through social-distancing norms to close, the resulting loss of income for workers and owners will cause increased numbers of people to fall behind on bills and risk their housing, health, utility, and food security.

We must plan and act with the most vulnerable in mind to both stop the spread of this virus, and ensure that weeks and months of addressing this public health crisis don’t turn into years of economic hardship.

Specifically, we are calling on federal leaders to champion the following policies:

• Pass a Paid Leave Policy for All Workers – Low-wage workers who cannot afford to lose a day's wages because of illness are less likely to seek medical care (for themselves and for their families) than workers who do have paid sick leave, and are 1.5 times more likely to go to work with contagious illnesses. This means that lack of paid sick leave is not only a problem for individual workers, but also a public health threat. Building on the House-passed version, a paid sick leave policy that covers all workers is urgently needed to address the new coronavirus outbreak and beyond to help protect the health and safety of the population.
• Ensure Emergency Income During Work Disruptions – We need to provide guaranteed income to help those facing disruptions to their income due to lost opportunities, funding streams, or customers. This includes small business owners and their employees, community-serving nonprofits, freelancers and artists, and workers in a gig economy who are not eligible for unemployment benefits but still must make their rent or mortgage payments.
• Place a Moratorium on All Evictions and Foreclosures and Ensure Housing Stability – We are in the midst of a housing crisis where 21 million renters and 17 million homeowners pay more than a third of their income on housing bills, making them extremely vulnerable to income disruptions. We need a moratorium on all evictions and foreclosures to prevent the economic fallout of the virus. We must also provide emergency housing vouchers for all unhoused people, and those facing eviction. And at a minimum, we need to stop displacing homeless encampments, and take measures to increase access to water, hand-washing stations, and sanitation at current encampments to support critical health outcomes.
• Prevent Utility Shut-Offs and Restore Water Service to All Households – Loss of income for households, workers, and small businesses will cause increased numbers of people to fall behind on bills and face utility services shut-offs. Over a third of US households are already at risk of inability to pay rising water bills. This is particularly concerning as washing our hands is our first line of defense against the virus. All public and private utilities should halt any utility shut-offs during this crisis, restore service to households currently experiencing a shutoff, and provide water delivery to all households with contaminated water systems.
• Ensure Hospitals and Health-Care Centers Are Safe Places for Immigrants and Anyone Seeking Care – We must eliminate all barriers to people seeking proper medical attention, regardless of insurance or lack thereof. This also includes ensuring no one’s immigration status will be questioned when seeking assistance. Hospitals and health-care facilities must make it clear in all languages that immigration status will not be questioned, and should take steps to ensure immigration enforcement officials are not permitted in buildings.
• Prevent the Spread of COVID-19 Through the Incarcerated Population – In the US, 2.3 million people are exposed to overcrowded and unsanitary conditions in prisons and jails, which will contribute to the spread of the coronavirus as the incarcerated population interacts with staff and other visitors. At a minimum, we must ensure incarcerated people have access to medical care and personal hygiene products; release elderly people with underlying medical problems to parole supervision; and release those who have an anticipated release date in 2020 and 2021 to parole supervision.

We are heartened by the swift actions that leaders in cities across the country are taking, proving once again that local leaders are national leaders. But we need policymakers at all levels to urgently address the threat of this current pandemic while ensuring we protect all struggling communities beyond this crisis.

CALL YOUR SENATOR

Please call your members to make sure they act without delay and strengthen the policies to help us navigate this public health and economic crisis.

Housing for People, Not Speculators! 

We condemn the cruel and violent eviction of homeless Black mothers and their children in the organization Moms 4 Housing, from a vacant house in West Oakland that they have been occupying for the past two months.  Around 5:30 a.m., Alameda County sheriff’s deputies broke down the door with guns drawn, backed by armed personnel in military fatigues with semi-automatic rifles and armored vehicles.  Authorities arrested two of the moms and two supporters, boarding up the house to prevent reentry.

We decry the terror of eviction, and the wanton waste of public funds against Moms 4 Housing – extreme measures which do nothing to address the crisis of real estate speculation and homelessness engulfing Oakland, especially its Black community.  

We call for charges against those arrested to be dropped immediately.  And we fully support the demands of Moms 4 Housing! We call on the property owner, Wedgewood, to sell the home to Oakland Community Land Trust at the price they bought it for, so the moms may continue to live there and raise their children in peace, with long-term stability; and we call on Oakland and Alameda County to advance policies to repossess vacant homes to secure their use for community needs, to end the inhumane and unnecessary homelessness that has become ubiquitous.

There are nearly four times the number of vacant properties in Oakland as there are homeless individuals.  Wedgewood Properties, a real estate investment firm, prides itself on profiting from flipping properties, which it calls the “backbone” of its business model.  Oakland lost 35,000 homes to foreclosure between 2007 to 2012. The impact was disproportionate in Black and brown neighborhoods, due to predatory and racist subprime lending practices that targeted these residents.  Wedgewood has unapologetically scooped up these foreclosed homes, even retaliating against displaced residents seeking to buy their home back. The house occupied by Moms 4 Housing lay vacant for two years before the moms took action. Wedgewood’s practices, based on speculation rather than sheltering people, drive up housing costs for everyone.

By taking action, the Moms 4 Housing have courageously exposed the roots of our homelessness crisis, and pointed the way forward to real policy solutions. From their own experiences, many of the members of Moms 4 Housing know the intolerable gulf between declining real incomes for low-wage workers and skyrocketing rents, the impossible odds of securing affordable housing or a voucher, and the brutal inadequacy of underfunded homeless services. Policy studies prove that the most effective solution to homelessness is providing stable and affordable housing. Every person and child deserves a home.  

Tuesday morning’s eviction is not an end to this fight. We applaud City Councillors Nikki Fortunato Bas, Dan Kalb, and Council President Rebecca Kaplan for urging Wedgewood to sell the home to Oakland Community Land Trust, and call on government officials to lift all punitive action against the moms and support their demands. Now is the time to listen to Moms 4 Housing and the people most harmed, and act. Across the country, policymakers should heed this growing movement’s call to reign in speculators, including by limiting their rights to profit from flipping homes.

UPDATE: Moms 4 Housing has announced an agreement with Wedgewood to negotiate the sale of the house through the Oakland Community Land Trust. Read more here.

You Can Still Take Action By:

• Signing the Moms' petition calling for an investigation into the militarized tactics used for their eviction.