SURJ National Director Erin Heaney spoke with CBS about SURJ’s work in the midst of the ongoing protests against police brutality:
Across the country, people are asking what they can do to help in the fight against racism and racial injustice. In the days after George Floyd’s death, multiracial crowds poured into streets around the nation in protest of social injustice. Erin Heaney understands the outrage. “There’s no such thing as not racist. We need you to be anti-racist,” she says.
She’s the director of Showing up for Racial Justice, also known as SURJ, a multiracial activist organization committed to the fight against racism. SURJ focuses on “calling in” White people to support racial justice and works in alliance with Black and people of color-led organizations. “I think it’s really important that all of the work for racial justice is grounded in the vision of Black leaders in this country. And we know that white silence is one of the greatest barriers to winning that transformative vision that folks have set,” Heaney says.
