So what can we do on a local level here in Lake Oswego? While the long-term answer is to continue building our justice-minded community and more effectively organize with one another, a couple of immediate actions we can take are: 1) Updating the City of
LO's DEI goals to be more community driven and focused on the needs of the city's most marginalized communities and 2) Get more books about antiracist organizing and local histories of communities of color in Lake Oswego schools.
While seemingly small asks, these are important and necessary changes that will require collective organizing to bring to reality. So how do we go about that?
Updating the City of LO's DEI
Goals
The City's 2025 Goal Setting Retreat is set for January 25, 2025 from 9am-3:30pm. Community members can submit their suggested goals online. Please read the City's instructions for more details. Currently, the City's DEI goals read as follows:
“Continue efforts related to DEI, including: prioritize equity in the delivery of city services; formalize a translation and interpretation policy; explore a partnership with LOSD to host an annual event welcoming new residents
to the city; and provide information on how to engage and ways to access services and programs.”
RtR is suggesting you write in your support for the following additions to the City's DEI goals: 1) Develop an antiracism action plan guided by the priorities identified in a survey of Lake Oswego community members of color. 2) Create a designated multicultural space in a City of Lake Oswego facility for shared use by
organizations serving community members of color. 3) Provide and widely publicize community education on microaggressions, including through community events, publicly available education materials and other public-facing City communications.
Please read our full explainer here for more details on why we have chosen to push for these particular goals. We are also planning to host an online workshop on campaign building for local issues focused on the upcoming Goal Setting. Stay tuned for more details.
Getting More Books on Antiracist Organizing and Local Communities of Color in LO Schools
Our friends at LO for
Love and the Lake Oswego Library recently hosted a panel on the Freedom to Read and one of the discussions during the Q&A was on how book bans affect books about local histories of communities of color. Third Eye Books owner Charles Hannah noted that these books don't get as much attention in the discussion and LOSD librarian Carrie Light indicated an interest in
placing more of these titles in the LOSD library. You can help aid those efforts by writing into the LOSD Board of Directors, requesting the addition of the following titles, which were featured or mentioned in either recent RtR or other local community events:
Again, we are requesting you
support this effort by writing into or testifying to the LOSD Board of Directors to add these books to the school district library. If you'd like to get more actively involved in these campaigns, sign up for RtR's direct engagement committee!
