Mission:
SURJ Nashville, a chapter of the national Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) network, is a group of individuals organizing white people for racial justice in Middle Tennessee. Through education, outreach, and mobilization, SURJ Nashville’s mission and purpose are:
- To call white people into the work of unlearning racism and white supremacy that operates in personal attitudes and relationships
- To call white people into the work of divesting from and dismantling racism and white supremacy that operates within systems and institutions
- To create spaces of learning, accountability, and transformation for people seeking to engage in the work outlined above
- To support local, statewide, regional, and national people of color (POC) led movements for racial and social justice.
Accountability through Collective Action:
For SURJ Nashville, accountability means having active relationships with and taking direction from the people-of-color-led (POC) organizations below. The goal of SURJ Nashville is not to produce good members of SURJ, but to train white people to engage well in multi-racial organizing spaces and handle our own learning in a way that does not further burden POC. We encourage SURJ Nashville members to engage in the work of our accountability partners alongside their work with SURJ. SURJ Nashville views itself as a transitional space, working towards a time when SURJ is no longer needed as a separate space to educate, outreach, and mobilize white people.
SURJ Nashville is accountable to the following local POC-led organizations:
Workers’ Dignity
Gideon’s Army
Free Hearts
Black Lives Matter Nashville
Dues:
SURJ Nashville encourages members to pay dues yearly as they are able on a sliding scale of $0-$100. To us, sliding scale means that each member considers what, if any, disposable income they have and chooses a yearly amount between 0 and 100 dollars that makes sense for them. A member can pay their dues in a lump sum, set up a small monthly donation to SURJ Nashville, or use any other payment schedule that works for them. We accept cash, checks (made payable to SURJ Nashville), or money sent to our PayPal.
If you are interested in making a donation to SURJ Nashville in addition to a dues payment, please donate directly to local POC-led groups, like our accountability partners listed above, instead.
At minimum, we will donate 50% of all dues collected directly to our accountability partners. We will use part of the remaining dues to cover “overhead” costs of SURJ Nashville, like paying for space to hold meetings, trainings, text blasts, etc. The rest of the dues will be used to support POC-led actions and organizing as money/supplies are needed.
SURJ Nashville banks with Citizens Bank, a local black-owned bank.
Showing Up For Racial Justice 