Tag Archives: anti-racism

Lunchtime Discussion – Reimagining Public Safety

Lunchtime Discussions, , , , , ,

The Anti-Racism, Equity and Justice (AREJ) Organizing Team invites you to our next Lunchtime Discussion on Wednesday, May 5 at noon.

This will be the first of a two part discussion on “Reimagining Public Safety”.

In this first session we will engage with what policing and public safety looks like now, in our community and for us personally, and how that informs, influences, and sometimes interferes in the discussion of “reforming”, “abolishing” or “defunding” our existing policing paradigm.

Our second session will deconstruct the origin and evolution of policing followed by a discussion about how public safety could be reimagined from the ground up, absent present-day paradigms and institutions.

We welcome you at either one or both!

Some readings of interest on this topic locally (written by Tiana Headley, Vassar ’22):
How the Poughkeepsie Police Union Tried to Defeat Reform
Uneven Police Reform Compliance Frustrates Mid-Hudson Communities

Deep Denial: The Persistence of White Supremacy in United States History and Life

Upcoming Community Events, ,

Online Book Read
Deep Denial: The Persistence of White Supremacy in United States History and Life by David Billings.

As part of Black History month, the Kingston Chapter of ENJAN is hosting a timely discussion with anti-racist author David Billings about his book Deep Denial on Thursday, February 11th 7-9 PM.

Register here for the event. Your registration fee of $22.00 includes a copy of David’s book Deep Denial. All proceeds from the book sales will go to support the making of the film documentary Hallowed Ground, a story about the forgotten Pine Street African Burial Ground for enslaved people in Kingston. With your registration receipt you can pick up your copy of the book at:

  • Rough Draft Bar and Books, 82 John St, Kingston (Open M-F 8-6pm, Sat. 9-6pm Sun. 9-4pm) Closed 1/19-25, or,
  • Tilda’s Kitchen, 630 Broadway, Kingston (Open Wed-Fri, 9-5; Sat-Sun 10-6pm).

David Billings is a life-long activist, educator, and organizer in the anti-racist movement and a key trainer, since 1985, in the Undoing Racism Workshops offered by the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond. His book combines personal stories from his life, beginning with his white, working-class boyhood in Mississippi and Arkansas to his experience of both the promise and decline of the Civil Rights movement and brings these lessons to his teaching and organizing.