RtR Community,
Today’s Joy for Juneteenth email
is dedicated to Willie Poinsette, co-founder of Respond to Racism (RtR) whose birthday was just yesterday. Happy Belated Birthday, Willie!
Many of you know Willie personally and have shown up to RtR’s excellent monthly community meetings, which started in 2017 and centered around Willie's life’s work and passion: education. (If you want to learn more about Willie Poinsette, you can read this biography here from her 2021 Lake Oswego Rotary’s “Excellence in Education: Service About Self” Citizen Award.)
Education is the first tenant of RtR’s Theory of Change so that members can “gain a deeper understanding of the historical context of racism,
its impact on communities of color, and their role in combating it.” Since the pandemic, community meetings were often recorded free for the public with engaging titles like “Freedom to Read; What’s at Stake,” “Achieving World Citizenship,” “Holding Difficult Truths: Transforming Our Broken Past Into a Hopeful Future.” Held in partnership
with other speakers and educators, Respond to Racism chose topics that would help empower Lake Oswego and Clackamas County residents to move beyond learning. Indeed, most community meetings ended with a clear call to action.
In 2025, with threats to education such as the removal
of Ethnic Studies and AP African American Studies from Lake Oswego and other school districts’ core curriculums, plus the defunding and dismantlement of the U.S. Department of Education, Willie and many of us involved with Respond to Racism feel deep concern about the future for our children and communities. As RtR expands, we all need to take our private learning public and “actively participate in anti-racist efforts and advocate for equitable policies and
practices.”
Willie Poinsette has been a model for how to actively show up in public with Respond to Racism-–tabling at events, speaking to other community groups, showing up for protests, volunteering in public, testifying and writing letters to change unjust laws and policies, convening the first Clackamas County Equity Coalition Steering Committee meetings, and supporting community art projects.
Give today in honor of Willie’s birthday and keep Joy for Juneteenth going strong in our community!
Your donation will have a critical impact for continued community education
programming:
$100 = food and drinks for one community meeting
$500 = honorarium for a keynote speaker
$1000 = community training facilitator fee
P.S. Your contribution will be matched up to $5000.00 for this Joy for Juneteenth campaign. Give today and double your impact! Thank you!
