How is your bike co-op supporting racial justice? // ¿Como están apoyando la justicia racial en su colectivo?
---- Español a continuación ----
Hey buds,
We've been chatting about ways to support racial justice, indigenous sovereignty & the revolution through our work at the Bike Kitchen, and we were hoping to hear about what you're all doing these days. Some questions that have come up during our conversations include:
- How can bike co-ops support movements for racial justice & indigenous
sovereignty in a meaningful and sustained way? - Are you fundraising/donating money, if so how and for whom? - Are you providing low barrier repair services, bikes, etc.? Are you doing this at protests/rallies/actions? If so, what COVID precautions are you taking?
- How are you communicating your support? (i.e. are you reaching out
directly to organizers to offer free repairs, fundraising, etc.? Are you writing statements of support?)
- How are you ensuring that the work you're doing is serving these
movements without becoming a burden/co-opting the movement?
- Would you be interested in participating in a virtual conversation
about this?
Really interested to hear what everyone's been up to. Sending you all much love, support and solidarity.
<3 aida
---- Español ----
Hola amigxs,
Hemos estado charlando sobre formas de apoyar la justicia racial, la soberanía indígena y la revolución a través de nuestro trabajo en el Bike Kitchen, y nos gustaría saber qué están haciendo ustedes. Aquí les dejo algunas preguntas que surgieron:
- ¿Cómo podemos apoyar los movimientos por la justicia racial y
soberanía indígena de forma sostenida? - ¿Están recaudando fondos / donando dinero / bicicletas, etc.? ¿Para quién? - ¿Están reparando bicicletas en manifestaciones? ¿Qué precauciones está tomando en cuanto a COVID?
- ¿Cómo están comunicando su apoyo? (es decir, ¿están contactando
directamente a los organizadores de movimientos sociales para ofrecer bicis gratuitas, recaudación de fondos, etc.? ¿Están escribiendo declaraciones de apoyo?
- ¿Cómo se aseguran de que el trabajo que están haciendo sirva a estos
movimientos sin convertirse en una carga / cooptar el movimiento?
- ¿Te interesaría participar en una conversación virtual sobre esto?
Tengo muchas ganas de escuchar y aprender de sus experiencias. Les envío mucho amor, apoyo y solidaridad.
<3 aida
Hi All,
I think this is a really important discussion and would love to hear what other shops are doing. (sorry I am unable to reply in Spanish)
Bike Farm in Portland is doing a few things:
- We are trying to continue our conversations around equity and racial
diversity despite covid and not being able to meet in person. While it's not as robust as it should be, I believe we will continue to prioritize this conversation in the next few weeks
- We are setting up mobile repair (somewhat like a street fair) at BLM
protests. We will offer free minor repairs for people attending protests.
- For Juneteenth, we offered a free repair day for BIPOC folks, working
with the ride leader for the Black Liberation Ride.
I think generally what we are doing is being open and generous to any BIPOC organization that could benefit from our resources. We are endeavouring to listen to what the community tells us they need and not be prescriptive about how we can help. We are internally trying to educate our members and volunteers. We are listening to the voices of our BIPOC members/volunteers, trying to hear what they need to be safe in our space or safe out on the street.
Our history with being an inclusive space for all races has not been perfect. We are wrestling with how to sit with our failures, acknowledge them, and work towards changes that address the issues. Pre Covid, we were creating a night for spanish speaking folks and setting up movie nights that educate our community about the injustice experienced by black people who lived in our neighborhood well before we got here. I believe there will likely be systemic changes that are needed. When we figure them out, maybe we'll post again regarding what we have found.
Again, I'd love to hear about what other shops are thinking. -Momoko
On Fri, Jun 26, 2020 at 3:58 PM Aida Mas Baghaie aida.masb@gmail.com wrote:
---- Español a continuación ----
Hey buds,
We've been chatting about ways to support racial justice, indigenous sovereignty & the revolution through our work at the Bike Kitchen, and we were hoping to hear about what you're all doing these days. Some questions that have come up during our conversations include:
- How can bike co-ops support movements for racial justice &
indigenous sovereignty in a meaningful and sustained way? - Are you fundraising/donating money, if so how and for whom? - Are you providing low barrier repair services, bikes, etc.? Are you doing this at protests/rallies/actions? If so, what COVID precautions are you taking?
- How are you communicating your support? (i.e. are you reaching out
directly to organizers to offer free repairs, fundraising, etc.? Are you writing statements of support?)
- How are you ensuring that the work you're doing is serving these
movements without becoming a burden/co-opting the movement?
- Would you be interested in participating in a virtual conversation
about this?
Really interested to hear what everyone's been up to. Sending you all much love, support and solidarity.
<3 aida
---- Español ----
Hola amigxs,
Hemos estado charlando sobre formas de apoyar la justicia racial, la soberanía indígena y la revolución a través de nuestro trabajo en el Bike Kitchen, y nos gustaría saber qué están haciendo ustedes. Aquí les dejo algunas preguntas que surgieron:
- ¿Cómo podemos apoyar los movimientos por la justicia racial y
soberanía indígena de forma sostenida? - ¿Están recaudando fondos / donando dinero / bicicletas, etc.? ¿Para quién? - ¿Están reparando bicicletas en manifestaciones? ¿Qué precauciones está tomando en cuanto a COVID?
- ¿Cómo están comunicando su apoyo? (es decir, ¿están contactando
directamente a los organizadores de movimientos sociales para ofrecer bicis gratuitas, recaudación de fondos, etc.? ¿Están escribiendo declaraciones de apoyo?
- ¿Cómo se aseguran de que el trabajo que están haciendo sirva a estos
movimientos sin convertirse en una carga / cooptar el movimiento?
- ¿Te interesaría participar en una conversación virtual sobre esto?
Tengo muchas ganas de escuchar y aprender de sus experiencias. Les envío mucho amor, apoyo y solidaridad.
<3 aida
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Here at BICAS we are also trying to figure out the best way forward, and we've determined that we need to pursue multiple avenues including not only direct services considerations, but also organizational education, reflection, reconciliation, and even reparations. By no means is BICAS perfect and we have a looong ways to go, but we have been working hard for some years now at getting away from the "white bike bro" monoculture and having some tough convos about general racial equity. But as part of issuing a statement of solidarity with the Movement for Black Lives, we decided that it was important for us to identify our current endeavors as a commitment to unlearning *anti-Blackness specifically*, as a thing apart from a more general commitment to racial justice. Many non-Black POC communities, after all, are just as steeped in anti-Black sentiment as white communities, and we felt it was important to be clear about our learning & unlearning efforts as they relate to this movement. That said, we have only just begun.
~Carlyn
Español: (Perdóname los errores, es que aprendí mi espanol en la cocina de mi abuela): Aquí en BICAS estamos tratando de identificar la manera mejora de avanzar y decidimos que necesitamos perseguir avenidas varias, incluyendo no solamente los servicios directos, sino también educación organizacional, reflexión, reconciliación, y aun las indemnizaciones. Claro que BICAS no es perfecto y nos queda mucho de hacer, pero hemos estado trabajando mucho durante años recientes en salir del monocultivo "white bike bro" y hablar de la equidad racial. Pero bueno, así que emitimos una declaración de solidaridad con "las vidas negras importan" decidimos que fue importante identificar nuestros intentos como una obligación desaprender *la anti-negritud específicamente*, como algo distinto de nuestro compromiso a la justicia racial en general. Es cierto que las comunidades "non-Black gente de color" estan tanto llenado del racismo anti-negro como las communidades blancas, y sentimos que fue importante ser muy claro sobre nuestras esfuerzas de aprendar y desaprender en relación a este movimiento. Ahora bien, estamos solo al principio.
~Carlyn
I am not involved with a bike co-op right now, just a supporter of what y'all do. But I came across this resource by the Triangle Bikeworks (in North Carolina) and it seems like a really great structure to a first conversation around white supremacist culture in the cycling world. This is a link to a doc that details their approach to this first conversation: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-KM8aNyv74YH0U_i6RYTKpGBJo4yxFp7yEkLiSbr...
Also sidenote: just want to love on this article on this being the summer of women on bikes https://www.cntraveler.com/story/its-the-summer-of-the-bicycle-and-women-are...
-Rachel
On Thu, Jul 16, 2020 at 8:13 PM Carlyn Arteaga carlyn.arteaga@bicas.org wrote:
Here at BICAS we are also trying to figure out the best way forward, and we've determined that we need to pursue multiple avenues including not only direct services considerations, but also organizational education, reflection, reconciliation, and even reparations. By no means is BICAS perfect and we have a looong ways to go, but we have been working hard for some years now at getting away from the "white bike bro" monoculture and having some tough convos about general racial equity. But as part of issuing a statement of solidarity with the Movement for Black Lives, we decided that it was important for us to identify our current endeavors as a commitment to unlearning *anti-Blackness specifically*, as a thing apart from a more general commitment to racial justice. Many non-Black POC communities, after all, are just as steeped in anti-Black sentiment as white communities, and we felt it was important to be clear about our learning & unlearning efforts as they relate to this movement. That said, we have only just begun.
~Carlyn
Español: (Perdóname los errores, es que aprendí mi espanol en la cocina de mi abuela): Aquí en BICAS estamos tratando de identificar la manera mejora de avanzar y decidimos que necesitamos perseguir avenidas varias, incluyendo no solamente los servicios directos, sino también educación organizacional, reflexión, reconciliación, y aun las indemnizaciones. Claro que BICAS no es perfecto y nos queda mucho de hacer, pero hemos estado trabajando mucho durante años recientes en salir del monocultivo "white bike bro" y hablar de la equidad racial. Pero bueno, así que emitimos una declaración de solidaridad con "las vidas negras importan" decidimos que fue importante identificar nuestros intentos como una obligación desaprender *la anti-negritud específicamente*, como algo distinto de nuestro compromiso a la justicia racial en general. Es cierto que las comunidades "non-Black gente de color" estan tanto llenado del racismo anti-negro como las communidades blancas, y sentimos que fue importante ser muy claro sobre nuestras esfuerzas de aprendar y desaprender en relación a este movimiento. Ahora bien, estamos solo al principio.
~Carlyn
--
*Carlyn Arteaga*
*pronouns: they/them/theirs*
Youth Program Coordinator
*BICAS*
2001 N. 7th Ave. | Tucson, AZ 85701 | Shop: 520-628-7950
carlyn.arteaga@bicas.org | www.bicas.org | Facebook http://www.facebook.com/bicascollective/ | Instagram http://www.instagram.com/bicastucson/
*Through advocacy and bicycle salvage, our mission is to participate in affordable bicycle transportation, education, and creative recycling with our greater Tucson community.* ____________________________________
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Hey all,
Thanks to Aida for bringing this up, and to everyone else for their responses.
At Kickstand in Vancouver, BC, we are exploring the idea of offering small grants to aspiring BIPOC mechanics. We're still in the early stages of planning, but some ideas:
- Exploring a partnership with our distributors - this could look like
discounts or donations of tools, parts, stands, etc.
- Offering a budget ($500? $1000?) towards at-cost tools and parts in
conjunction with or in lieu of the aforementioned partnership
- Reaching out to our local bike mechanics school to see if they would
be interested in offering reduced cost or free training
We are in a pretty solid financial position at the moment, so I think we could foot the cost of this ourselves, but I'll also be looking into grant funding to support this program.
I am *very *interested in any feedback folks might have. My hope is that this program will uplift BIPOC folks and provide a means to gain a foothold in the cycling industry. But as an all-volunteer organization, we don't have the capacity, necessarily, to offer ongoing support beyond provision of tools (and maybe external training). I worry about that, but also am conscious that ongoing support could end up being something more akin to tokenism than actual support. Feel free to contact me privately if any of y'all want to continue this discussion off-thread. (Also heeeey other Vancouver shops - I haven't brought this up to y'all yet, but maybe we can collab?)
Alysia
On Fri, Jul 17, 2020 at 11:02 AM Rachel Eckles rachel.c.eckles@gmail.com wrote:
I am not involved with a bike co-op right now, just a supporter of what y'all do. But I came across this resource by the Triangle Bikeworks (in North Carolina) and it seems like a really great structure to a first conversation around white supremacist culture in the cycling world. This is a link to a doc that details their approach to this first conversation: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-KM8aNyv74YH0U_i6RYTKpGBJo4yxFp7yEkLiSbr...
Also sidenote: just want to love on this article on this being the summer of women on bikes https://www.cntraveler.com/story/its-the-summer-of-the-bicycle-and-women-are...
-Rachel
On Thu, Jul 16, 2020 at 8:13 PM Carlyn Arteaga carlyn.arteaga@bicas.org wrote:
Here at BICAS we are also trying to figure out the best way forward, and we've determined that we need to pursue multiple avenues including not only direct services considerations, but also organizational education, reflection, reconciliation, and even reparations. By no means is BICAS perfect and we have a looong ways to go, but we have been working hard for some years now at getting away from the "white bike bro" monoculture and having some tough convos about general racial equity. But as part of issuing a statement of solidarity with the Movement for Black Lives, we decided that it was important for us to identify our current endeavors as a commitment to unlearning *anti-Blackness specifically*, as a thing apart from a more general commitment to racial justice. Many non-Black POC communities, after all, are just as steeped in anti-Black sentiment as white communities, and we felt it was important to be clear about our learning & unlearning efforts as they relate to this movement. That said, we have only just begun.
~Carlyn
Español: (Perdóname los errores, es que aprendí mi espanol en la cocina de mi abuela): Aquí en BICAS estamos tratando de identificar la manera mejora de avanzar y decidimos que necesitamos perseguir avenidas varias, incluyendo no solamente los servicios directos, sino también educación organizacional, reflexión, reconciliación, y aun las indemnizaciones. Claro que BICAS no es perfecto y nos queda mucho de hacer, pero hemos estado trabajando mucho durante años recientes en salir del monocultivo "white bike bro" y hablar de la equidad racial. Pero bueno, así que emitimos una declaración de solidaridad con "las vidas negras importan" decidimos que fue importante identificar nuestros intentos como una obligación desaprender *la anti-negritud específicamente*, como algo distinto de nuestro compromiso a la justicia racial en general. Es cierto que las comunidades "non-Black gente de color" estan tanto llenado del racismo anti-negro como las communidades blancas, y sentimos que fue importante ser muy claro sobre nuestras esfuerzas de aprendar y desaprender en relación a este movimiento. Ahora bien, estamos solo al principio.
~Carlyn
--
*Carlyn Arteaga*
*pronouns: they/them/theirs*
Youth Program Coordinator
*BICAS*
2001 N. 7th Ave. | Tucson, AZ 85701 | Shop: 520-628-7950
carlyn.arteaga@bicas.org | www.bicas.org | Facebook http://www.facebook.com/bicascollective/ | Instagram http://www.instagram.com/bicastucson/
*Through advocacy and bicycle salvage, our mission is to participate in affordable bicycle transportation, education, and creative recycling with our greater Tucson community.* ____________________________________
The ThinkTank mailing List
Unsubscribe from this list here: http://lists.bikecollectives.org/options.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.or...
The ThinkTank mailing List
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participants (5)
-
Aida Mas Baghaie -
Alysia Herr -
Carlyn Arteaga -
momoko saunders -
Rachel Eckles