Reclaim MLK - #CallOutLibby: the Bay Area calls out Libby Schaaf

As people across the Bay Area mobilize for #96Hours of Direct Action to Reclaim King’s Radical Legacy (https://www.facebook.com/events/1637988586490486/), SURJ - Bay Area*** is asking you to join us in CALLING OUT Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, who continues to condone AND fuel white supremacist forces terrorizing Oakland’s Black and Brown communities. Together, we believe it is time to #CallOutLibby.

Since Mayor Schaaf took office in January 2015, at least 8 Black men have been murdered at the hands of Oakland Police. At the same time, Schaaf and other civic officials have encouraged massive increases in commercial development that is resulting in the traumatic displacement of Black, Brown and working class folks across Oakland. Mayor Schaaf has made it clear that Black lives are less important to her than white and blue lives. Now we’re coming to make it clear we see her complicity in Oakland’s racial injustice as violent and grounds for her to RESIGN.

On Saturday, January 16, we will sound the alarm to Oakland's mayor and her neighbors. The time for calling her in is over. We want Libby Schaaf out. We will meet at 8:30 am at the neighborhood park (3427 Fruitvale Avenue) parking lot, and proceed together to her house to amplify the collective demand for her resignation. More event details at bottom.

One year ago, inspiring Black leaders from Blackout Collective signaled the first alarm in a people’s inauguration of Libby Schaaf, coming to her house in the early hours of January 19, 2015. Their calls were clear: disband police forces in Oakland Unified School District, end police harassment of homeless people, stop militarization of local law enforcement through programs like Urban Sheild, and halt the continued development practices that result in displacement of Black and Brown people. Their courageous action “woke up” Libby to the ongoing trauma facing Black and Brown communities of Oakland and throughout this country. One year later, it seems Mayor Schaaf has hit the snooze button.

***SURJ - Bay Area is the active chapter of Showing Up For Racial Justice, a national network of groups and individuals organizing white people for racial justice. Through community organizing, mobilizing, and education, SURJ moves white people to act as part of a multi-racial majority for justice with passion and accountability. This #ReclaimMLK weekend, Bay Area SURJ is working in solidarity with Black-led organizations such as Anti-Police Terror Project (http://www.antipoliceterrorproject.org/) to address ongoing gentrification and displacement, police brutality, educational inequity, and other racial justice issues in the Bay Area.

We as white people understand our culpability in white supremacy and our role in the fight against it, so we are SHOWING UP to stand with Black leaders in the Bay Area who have proclaimed loudly and clearly that enough is enough.

EVENT DETAILS: We are asking all people to wear black. We will be bringing signs, but we encourage you to also make your own signs with #EvictLibby #WakeUpTheMayor #CallOutLibby.

To learn more about Showing Up For Racial Justice, visit http://www.showingupforracialjustice.org/.

To join Bay Area SURJ, message us on Facebook or email surjbayarea [at] gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/events/746956812101228/