Message from our Weekly Newsletter, June 4th, 2020:
The board of the Northern California Peace Corps Association stands by the statement issued by the National Peace Corps Association’s president Glenn Blumhorst. It is unequivocal in decrying the murder of George Floyd and placing that murder in the context of our county’s long, entrenched, and ongoing history of injustice, fear, and racism. We support proposed actions from NPCA including:
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Write to our Members of Congress: https://advocacy.peacecorpsconnect.org/email-congress#/61
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On Friday, June 5 at 11 a.m. PT, we’re asking members of the Peace Corps Community to join us in 8 minutes and 46 seconds of silent reflection. That’s the amount of time that George Floyd was pinned to the ground by a Minneapolis police officer before he died. We do this in memory of all victims who have been targeted, stereotyped, and oppressed because of their race in our country. We can and must do better as a nation. #NotOneMore
Locally, if our members are interested in resources for better understanding or supporting the correction of racial injustice or the perspectives of local solidarity protests we have collected a small selection of resources below. We know there are many more. We also encourage folks to use our facebook group as a forum for constructive discussion and sharing of resources.
Peace Corps volunteers live and serve around the world in countries that invite us, as outsiders, to integrate into and support communities that we are not familiar with. Most of us served in countries and communities where violence, fear, or injustice is or was part of the backdrop of everyday life for decades. For some of us, that history preceded our arrival in-country, and before leaving the US we heard concerns and fears from friends and family who only knew about these selective elements of the communities where we would live for two years. In living in our host communities, we are called upon to listen, understand, and support our community members that host us. When we come home, we are expected to share our, often more nuanced, perspectives of our host countries with our fellow Americans. Such lessons and the need to listen and support our communities applies here in America as well.
From the bottom of our hearts, we hope that this is a moment of meaningful and lasting change, but know that we all have work to do.
