A Call for Racial Justice, Healing, and Transformation

Our country is tired. We have reached the breaking point of seeing Black people lynched and killed by police and white vigilantes. George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery should still be alive and here with us. Botham Jean, Atatiana Jefferson and Jordan Edwards should still be alive and here with us. In every state in this country—and in multiple countries in this world— people are rising up to say racism and police violence are no longer acceptable. In a country that has been racist since its inception, now is the time for all of us to do something.

Dallas Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation has been an anti-racist organization since it was founded. We seek racial justice through racial equity to achieve racial healing. We work to eradicate the belief in a hierarchy of human value through narrative change, relationship building, and equitable policies and practices. To help all of us heal, we need actionable and immediate change.

1. Dallas is on stolen land. Dallas was built by stolen people. Dallas will never be an equitable city until we confront what happened to American Indian people and Black people on this land. We call on the City of Dallas, Dallas County and the surrounding DFW-area to acknowledge, apologize, and work to repair the breach caused by these initial racist policies. We call on DFW-area leadership to implement the principles of Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation in our county and city governments, institutions, organizations, schools, churches, businesses, and communities. Congresswoman Barbara Lee has called for the formation of a national Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation Commission, which could be found on her website.

2. We call on DFW-area leadership in our county and city governments, institutions, organizations, schools, churches, businesses, and communities to commit to racial equity, and to being anti-racist. Diversity and inclusion efforts are not adequate. We need bold, explicit, and clear leadership along with strong action against White supremacy.

3. We call on DFW-area leadership in our county and city governments, institutions, organizations, schools, churches, businesses, and communities to shift resources from law enforcement, to community-designed and informed alternatives to safety, using a racial equity lens. We also need urgent investment in mental health, self-care services, and equitable health care services in communities of color.

4. We call on DFW-area leadership in our county and city governments, institutions, organizations, schools, churches, businesses, and communities to support Congressional Bill H.R. 40, and to commission and fund the local study of the economic effects of DFW-area American Indian genocide and removal, enslavement and disenfranchisement of African people, and the labor exploitation of Latinx people. Racialized poverty, homelessness and the racial wealth gap must end, but cannot without reparative actions.

Jerry Hawkins
Executive Director
Dallas Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation

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Dallas TRHT Steering Committee

Joli Robinson, Co-Board Chair
David Lozano, Co-Board Chair
Antoine Joyce, Racial Healing Chair
Diane Hosey, Fundraising Chair
Rev. Mike Baughman, Communication Chair
Eva Arreguin, Narrative Change Chair
Hilary Evans, Transformation Chair
Celeste Glover, Community Chair
Jodi Voice Yellowfish, Community Chair
Gillea Allison, Community Chair
Jerry Hawkins, Executive Director
Stephanie Drenka, Communications Director
Errika Flood Moultrie, Operations Director