As Thanksgiving approaches and Native people and allies face being assaulted by water cannons and rubber bullets for trying to clear a road on their own land, Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb prepares to travel to the region and offers this reflection on the situation. An AFSC delegation traveled to Standing Rock in September and produced this report reflecting on the situation and on what those who wish to support can do.

In the wake of a long presidential election season marked by racism and misogyny, movements across the country are working to reformulate strategies, take a stand against white supremacy, and continue the struggle for racial, social, and economic justice. Here’s what we're reading to ground us in this work:

After Trump, by Robin D.G. Kelly via Boston Review

AFSC strongly condemns any plan to create a Muslim registry in the U.S., or to reinstate the religious profiling of immigrants 

Among the first potential acts of the upcoming Administration, President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team is proposing overt discrimination: a Muslim registry program. This proposal is an attack on our country’s founding values—that all are created equal and constitutionally guaranteed freedom of religion.

By using peer mediation and other restorative justice tools, Northwest Academy has drastically reduced student suspensions over the past few years.

While the fall temperatures have reached the St. Louis area, many of the trees are holding on to their green leaves. And although the weather is in transition, students and teachers at Northwest Academy of Law, a public magnet school in north St. Louis city, have largely settled into the routine of things. 

Edwin Coleman is a first-year graduate student at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School for Public and International Affairs. He is a graduate of Duke University, a former Hart Fellow, and a returned Peace Corps Volunteer.

Privilege: spending the week shocked that so many Americans could support a racist, sexist and homophobic demagogue. 

Privilege: using economics as a means to rationalize voting for a blatantly bigoted candidate.

Privilege: defending said voters in the name of reconciliation. 

Privilege: dismissing the rise in hate crimes as exaggerated and/or temporary. 

Reasons that I do not have the aforementioned privileges: