RtR Community,

Hello, I’m Nancy Slavin, leadership team and founding member of our Clackamas County chapter of Showing Up for Racial Justice. I also co-convene Respond to Racism’s (RtR) White Accountability Committee, am part of RtR’s fundraising committee and on the steering committee of our Clackamas County Equity Coalition.

Nancy Slavin strikes a pose with RtR Executive Director, Bruce Poinsette

As we look forward to celebrations for the Juneteenth federal holiday, here’s what I’m thinking about: how is it possible that two whole years after the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, enslaved people in Galveston, Texas still did not know they had been freed? The answer is not as simple as we didn’t have the technology in the 1800s to spread the news. The darker truth is Texas, a state under Confederate control and influenced by powerful slave owners, intentionally withheld and/or delayed the news of freedom, particularly in rural areas, to keep enslaved people laboring as long as possible. 

The control of knowledge, information, and narrative by those with the most political and financial power has continued throughout the centuries of the United States. No matter which party is in office, compounding impacts of disinformation, withheld facts, and targeted exploitation and violence are most profound for Black, brown, immigrant, queer, poor and working class communities. And I’d argue, the advanced technology we do have, makes focusing on what is true and what is false even harder. All I can do is listen to my heart.

We all have a social-political autobiography, and mine includes being born to two working class parents who chose to move me and my siblings to the mostly-white suburbs of Chicago so we could attend a high school in a community much like Lake Oswego. There, in one of the best school districts in the country, even though I pledged allegiance to the flag, I did not learn the facts about our U.S. history. I certainly did not learn about Juneteenth. And so when I heard some of my good friends say a disparaging racialized comment about my beloved Black friend, I got shocked into reality; a reality that made me know there were two kinds of America. That experience broke my heart and has had me re-educating myself and working for freedom ever since.

In 2017 when I founded our SURJ chapter, I did so because our country saw a 17% increase in hate crimes, particularly anti-Black and LGBTQIA crimes. Early on, I connected with Pacific Northwest Family Circle (PNWFC), an organization co-founded by an immigrant mother whose teenage son was shot and killed in his own bedroom by local county sheriffs. I also attended community meetings at Respond to Racism—another organization formed after a racially charged police incident—and appreciated the focus on community education and action. I continued to show up when Proud Boys harassed a local queer shop owner, as PNWFC unfortunately added more family members of loved ones killed by police in our area, and as Black Lives Matter demonstrations bloomed amid the rise in Covid deaths. When our own elected county commissioners proposed to dissolve the Office of Equity and Inclusion (ahead of our current administration calling DEI  “illegal”), myself and many others in our equity coalition spoke up at commission meetings. 

I do all this work as a volunteer because of my broken heart. And yes, coalition building and community organizing is often slow; sometimes it doesn’t seem like much action is happening at all. But I remember the words of the Black Southern Civil Rights leader, James Patterson, who said, “You do have a choice. You don’t have to be a part of the world of the lynchers. You can join the other America. There is another America!” 

I want to be a part of an America that knows we are stronger together, united as one. I want to be an active member working for our collective liberation, because we know nobody's free until everybody's free. As forces of power continue to skew facts, spew doublespeak, and slant the truth, I show up in my community with friends and neighbors who show care for all people, provide mutual aid, and respond in active and public ways to racism. 

I don’t have a lot of money or social clout, but I do have a choice about how I respond each and every day. I respond with public education, activism, work, and joy. Yes, joy because building community and doing direct action helps my heart know the power of the people is greater than the people in power. Action is my daily anecdote to despair. 

I’m asking you today to take action and show your support for the growing and expanding work Respond to Racism does in our county by making a generous tax-deductible contribution today. You can also join one of Respond to Racism’s committees to continue their mission to educate and empower local residents and institutions with the tools to combat racism in all its forms. If we have any hope of making the promise of freedom come true, we need you to make a better place for residents of all races and ethnicities to live. Join in the Joy and see you out there, in public, showing up.

Nancy Slavin

Clackamas County SURJ

P.S. Remember your contribution today will be matched up to $5000.00 thanks to two generous local donors. We have a ways to go to get to our goal! Please give generously and thank you!

P.P.S. We’re always actively looking for other equity-minded groups to join the work of our Clackamas County Equity Coalition as we follow the recommendations of the research justice study published by the Coalition of Communities of Color, “Cultivating Belonging in Clackamas County.” If you’d like more information, please email clackcoequityco@gmail.com.

In solidarity,

Nancy