Resolution

A RESOLUTION DECLARING A COMMITMENT TO ANTI-RACISM

WHEREAS, there is a way forward in healing to bridge gaps in community understanding and reconciliation and that way is anti-racism.

WHEREAS, this is the moment and room we are residing in within history. There is no time but now to stop the wounds of separation and misunderstanding from growing in numbers. The burden and the honor falls upon us to do this antiracism work.

WHEREAS, Antiracism is the active effort of being against racism. There is no neutrality in the racism struggle. One either allows racial inequities to persevere, or confronts racial inequities. The only way to undo racism is to constantly identify and describe it - and then dismantle it.

WHEREAS, we are committed to not being frozen into inaction, but to fluid active healing, firstly by acknowledging racism and the damage it does

WHEREAS, antiracist healing is not about blame but about healing. HEREAS, antiracism asks of us to listen to the actual lived experiences of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) in our communities: They enrich and make whole, all of our lived experiences.

WHEREAS, antiracism asks that we are committed to understanding the history of race as a social construct that has meaning to the extent that it creates power over. Thus, to reiterate, we are committed to understanding racism as not only a belief or outward behavior that individuals hold, but as the formula of prejudice combined with power over within institutions to create inequity.

HEREAS, local BIPOC voices and the empirical evidence are telling us that racism is a problem in north New Jersey, as it is a problem everywhere. Those voices are speaking specifically about the need to focus on listening to those lived experiences to get an accurate picture of the whole story, both historically and contemporarily; about the role racism has