Community Stand against Racism

Across the world, there are many oppressed groups of people looked down upon in the world today, yet there are activists around the world who’s bringing awareness to these unlawful acts. Young Women’s Christian Association USA (YWCA) is a community of women with a variety of causes that they have a voice for, one of those causes being racism throughout America. Stand Against Racism, is an organization of individuals within YWCA that work together to enlighten the world on the outrageous acts of racism throughout the country.

They fund help for women of color and their families, immigrant families, etc. They led marches for injustices of women, men, children, immigrants and racial profiling. Many people, from a variety of ethnic backgrounds and religious backgrounds, come together and work as one for their own reasons on standing up against racism today.

Stand Against Racism is a hands-on organization that loves getting the communities involved to fight for a better world. They held 470 events nationwide in 2018 alone, nearly reaching every state in America. It was a variety of different people and nonprofit organizations that attended those events, including schools and local governments. YWCA is originally known for working with women, the less fortunate, and children, but as times changed and new laws came into place the YWCA began to support those affected by the unlawful acts of racism as well.

There are immigrant families affected by anti-immigrant policies that have feared deportation and being cut from their jobs, therefore having no way to support their families anymore. Women that are apart of YWCA have had interactions with families that are immigrants. They have had people in their close groups that are immigrants. Ms. Sameera Hafiz believes that we belong together as one. The YWCA believes that “all immigrants-regardless of status-deserve to be safe, healthy, and treated with dignity and respect”, with that being said, the 13th annual Stand Against Racism will be touching bases on the immigrant community’s injustice, hoping that eventually, all immigrants can live freely without the fear of being deported or discriminated against.

Four years prior to today, on April 23 the YWCA Stand Against Racism, led a march in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood “to press for passage: of the End Racial Profiling Act. They connected deaths like Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice and many others when they marched to end racial profiling. They, like many others, made it their business to shout, “Injustice Anywhere is a Threat to Justice Everywhere”. They were also in attendance and sponsors for a march in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood in October of 2017 to “build an intersectional racial justice movement that challenges and undoes racism, white supremacy and many other causes” that touches bases with the racism we face in society today. This has been one of their top priorities to stop racial profiling on every level. Lawmaker’s and government officials were informed about the harm caused by racial profiling and still no change has been made, because no action has been taken. People in higher positions seem to take these killings “lightly” where we, as a community, will no longer do that. YWCA believes our voice need to be heard and they vow to not stop until it is.

Racism and segregation can often be mistaken for the other. Although it could be easy to confuse the two they are very much different. Racism is the discrimination against another race, while segregation is the act of separating races from one another. YWCA in Bergen County, New Jersey has supported the movement; participating in an alliance with Stand Against Racism. They have allowed people from varieties of backgrounds to reflect on personal views and opinions within the community and try to come up with solutions to put an end to racism. YWCA gave their first ever Racial Justice Award, to Theodora Lacaey & The Coalition she is united with. Theodora Lacaey was an activist that fled from Louisiana from segregation, as she continuously pushed for a change up to this day, she is still fighting to close the gap of inequality. YWCA has made a positive impact in so many communities as they have expanded their brand from one state, one city to all over the world in this day.

This organization will help at making the world a better place because it is bringing awareness to the unfair treatment of the colored, and immigrants. Many people just brush racism off having feeling that it doesn’t have anything to do with them and if they wanted to help their voice won’t make a difference. Even though they have felt this Stand Against Racism is showing us otherwise. They are showing us that the only way for change is to stand up and force your voice to be heard. We must act, no matter how scared you may be, no matter how much you feel as though your voice will not be heard. It is time for us to take a stand! It is time for our voices to be heard! Seeing a group of women make such a positive change in the world is so inspiring to me as a young black woman of color. More and more people around the world are standing up for racism when the majority is standing towards a positive cause everything starts to change for the better.

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