SURJ: Showing up for Racial Justice at Sacred Heart

Showing Up for Racial Justice at Sacred Heart is a group of South Bay people who organize, mobilize and educate white folks and folks with privilege to take action for racial justice. We are accountable to organizations led by Latinx, Black and Indigenous leaders to show up in the ways they request. We believe that those closest to the pain have the best solutions. We try to leverage privilege to win real changes. We are part of the SURJ National Network and this South Bay affiliate is based out of Sacred Heart Community Service (SHCS) in San Jose. Our current and growing list of accountability partners includes the other organizing committees at Sacred Heart (RECS and PASOS most directly), Silicon Valley De-Bug, the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, and the Rapid Response Network of Santa Clara County.

"SHOWING UP" is more than just a name–it is a kind of practice. Joan Halifax tells us that “hope is not the belief that everything will turn out well.” Instead, she says hope is the commitment to showing up regardless of how things turn out. Showing up is a discipline. Also showing up is NOT for SHOW. It is actually about winning, about changing things, about dismantling systemic racism. We ask ourselves the question that Ijeoma Oluo asks about whether our actions are merely symbolic. She reminds us to ask ourselves: “Can the people we are in solidarity with feel this? Can they spend this? Can they eat this? Does this actually help them in any way?”

t is white people’s responsibility to organize other white people to dismantle white supremacy, because it is white people who historically and still today benefit from white supremacy. If you identify as a white person and share these principles, join us! If you identify as a person of color who's up for the difficult work of organizing folks with privilege into anti-racism, we enthusiastically welcome you and want to center your contributions.

Through community organizing, mobilizing, and education, SURJ moves white people to act as part of a multi-racial majority for justice with passion and accountability. SURJ at Sacred Heart provides a space to build relationships, skills, creativity and political analysis to act for change.

Contact Jen Myhre at jenm@sacredheartcs.org or 408-550-5554 if you would like to learn more about how to get involved. Check out our action calendar and join our mailing list at https://www.surjatsacredheart.org Our general membership meeting is in person on the first Tuesday of the month and our Campaigns meeting is on the third Wednesday of the month on Zoom.