Black Lives Matter
Graphic: Black Lives Matter
Berkeley will not be a safe place to walk and bike until EVERYONE can move through our public space without fearing racial violence and harassment from police and others. We stand in solidarity with Black Americans and allies demanding justice for the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, and many, many more. Black Lives Matter.
Our majority white organization is committed to anti-racist action. We recognize that white Americans have created, perpetuated, and benefitted from racist and oppressive systems that continue to exclude Black and Brown people from public spaces. In this critical moment of change, we are renewing our commitment to pushing back against pervasive anti-Blackness.
In recent years, the Berkeley NAACP Chapter, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Police Review Commission members, and others have called out racial bias in Berkeley Police traffic stops and use of force (see this and this). Data show that Black people are the only racial group disproportionately stopped for traffic violations while on foot or bike.* Though they make up only 9% of the city’s population, Black people experience 33% and 36% of pedestrian and bicycle traffic stops respectively. When the City adopted its Vision Zero Action Plan earlier this year, we successfully pushed back against using police enforcement strategies until a Vision Zero traffic enforcement policy is developed with community input. We’ll continue advocating to reform and deprioritize Berkeley Police traffic enforcement.
As we educate ourselves and build on this work, we hope you will join us. Here are some resources we’ve found helpful:
Work on understanding your own relationship with racism and anti-Blackness and how to take action. Commonly asked questions by white and/or privileged people, answered by other white and/or privileged people.
Learn from people of color about racism and transportation planning and advocacy. Keith Benjamin’s recent twitter thread is a great starting place. He’s the Director of the Transportation Dept. in Charleston, SC.
Donate to bail funds for protestors across the country.
Support Black-owned businesses in the East Bay: eateries open for takeout (Berkeley and Oakland), Spokes Bike Lounge (Berkeley), and Rich City Rides Bike Shop (Richmond).
*In 2020, in collaboration with BerkDOT coalition members, Walk Bike Berkeley updated Berkeley’s police stop data to include 5 years of data (2015-2019); those data can be viewed here.