Solidarity Summit
March 2015
Broadening the racial justice movement
through local and national partnerships with Muslim, Arab & South Asian communities
For three days in March 2015,
we gathered to examine how
we can support more
strategic collaboration
between Muslim, Arab and
South Asian communities and
other racial justice
advocacy communities.
Ahmad Abuznaid, Dream Defenders
Fatima Ashraf, Open Society Foundations
Jennifer Bellamy, ACLU
Maya Berry, Arab American Institute
Allison R. Brown, Open Society Foundations
Judith Browne-Dianis, Advancement Project
Sakira Cook, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
Emma Greer, Open Society Foundations
Umar Hakim, Systems for Human Empowerment
Wade Henderson, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
Nafisa Isa, Security and Rights Collaborative
Deepa Iyer, Open Society Foundations
Sapreet Kaur, Sikh Coalition
Farhana Khera, Muslim Advocates
Aarti Kohli, Asian Law Caucus
Greisa Martinez, United We Dream
Ceasar McDowell, Interaction Institute for Social Change
Mee Moua, Asian Americans Advancing Justice
Suman Raghunathan, South Asian Americans Leading Together
Gibrán Rivera, Interaction Institute for Social Change
Rashad Robinson, Color of Change
Lindsay Ryder, Security and Rights Collaborative
Linda Sarsour, Arab American Association of New York
Rinku Sen, Race Forward
Montague Simmons, Organization for Black Struggle
Amardeep Singh, Open Society Foundations
Rashida Tlaib, Sugar Law/NNAAC
Dawud Walid, Council on American-Islamic Relations
Eric K. Ward, Ford Foundation
Vincent Warren, Center for Constitutional Rights
Shireen Zaman, Security and Rights Collaborative
Solidarity Summit: March 2015
This gathering initiated a
year-long process to…
provide opportunities to nurture long-lasting relationships and trust
explore new areas of collaboration among ourselves
deepen understanding of the issues that affect our constituencies
raise up young leaders within MASA and racial justice communities
nurture understanding of the intersectional work of local and national leaders
Solidarity Summit: March 2015
With the goal of…
Envisioning and building
an inclusive 21st century
civil rights movement that
will increase transparency,
equity and human rights
for all people.
Solidarity Summit: March 2015


criminalization of our communities
the chill on civic engagement
What did we talk about?

language: who are our people?

addressing biases and racism within our communities

hate crimes (civilian and law enforcement)

what does it mean to be “American”?

media coverage of our communities

class and internalized oppression
Who is included and excluded changes over history.
The “othering” of “non-Americans” often involves the
dehumanization and then criminalization of communities
of color via drug enforcement, school to prison pipeline,
immigration enforcement, and ‘national security’ justifications.
All our communities feel these effects of being
“non-Americans” just by different justifications.
Solidarity Summit: March 2015

build on a human rights lens for our work

focus on field building and capacity

look for low cost/high impact ways to connect
What themes emerged?
“In order to translate the cultural
presence we have on issues impacting
Black and MASA communities into
the type of cultural power that
brings about systemic change, we
need to leverage popular culture and
build campaigns that people who
aren't activist can engage”
- Rashad Robinson, Color of
Change
our communities

promote authentic images of our communities
in the media

develop human-centric themes, such as “end
the war against people”

engage, elevate, and build power in directly
impacted communities
Solidarity Summit: March 2015
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dive into difficult conversations: we are not all
on the same page on what the movement is
and where we should go

share histories, teach each other about the
landscape and landmines of each community
What comes next?
talking more about language

“Many of our communities come to
social justice work from a place of
pain. I want to understand how we
can ‘co-own’ those places of pain.”
- Mee Moua, Asian Americans
Advancing Justice
What does solidarity mean? How can we get to a
place of “co-ownership” of our suffering?
Solidarity Summit: March 2015

our next meeting should include concrete
engagement with local communities
What comes next?
getting more concrete
“A lot of times our communities
are not comfortable with power.
We need to understand how to
use that power for good.”
- Umar Hakim, ILM Foundation

real urgency now to be in a room all together;
our communities are all under attack

produce something for our communities or
constituencies after each visit to share what we
have learned

map out our work and each organization’s
role and vision
Solidarity Summit: March 2015
“Building solidarity means showing
up for each other and standing up
for one another’s interests when one
of us is not in the room. Building
solidarity is seeing ourselves and our
children in one another."
- Linda Sarsour, Arab American
Association of New York

create a shared vision to take back to our
What comes next?
engaging our communities
constituents for their feedback and buy-in

whole communities must move forward
together, not just leaders

learn more about strategies to engage and bring
our bases together
Solidarity Summit: March 2015
What comes next?
Solidarity Summit
Aug 25-28
Nashville, TN
For more information, contact
Shireen Zaman, SRC Program Director
[email protected]
Solidarity Summit: March 2015