On Sunday, May 1, 2016, I attended the final day of the Youth Undoing Institutional Racism (YUIR) weekend in Pittsburgh, PA. I had attended two previous YUIR weekend events, one for youth in October of 2015 and one for adults in March of 2016.

By Javier Reyes

Guatemala is a country immersed in violence. Shootings happen daily in many areas, and local gangs often terrorize neighborhoods.

During the past 15 years, we’ve seen a rise in incidents involving lynchings and mob violence in rural and urban areas. This social phenomenon requires attention and multidisciplinary approaches from state security institutions and civil society.

Layla Razavi is AFSC’s Director of Human Migration and Mobility. Her work focuses on defeating anti-immigrant policies, including policies that facilitate the deportation of migrants, and the increased use and privatization of immigrant detention in the U.S. She also works with AFSC offices in the Middle East and Latin America to analyze the factors driving migration to the U.S.   

I was not looking forward to celebrating World Refugee Day this year. After all, it’s been a devastating year for refugees. Currently, 65 million people around the world are displaced by global conflicts (more than have ever existed in human history); nearly 100,000 of them are unaccompanied children who have made treacherous journeys alone.  

From prisoners at Guantanamo Bay to survivors of Chicago police torture, sharing our stories can create new narratives around war and violence.

“Where were you on March 20, 2003?,” Aaron Hughes, an Iraq War vet and artist, asks our group. We’re sitting on the floor around a Persian rug while Aaron brews a large pot of fragrant Alwazah tea with cardamom.

Kay Whitlock is a writer and activist who has been involved with racial, gender, queer, and economic justice movements since 1968. Her most recent book, written with Michael Bronski, is "Considering Hate: Violence, Goodness, and Justice in American Culture and Politics." 

She authored "Bridges of Respect (1988)," the first national guide for adults working with LGBT youth, and 2001's "In the Time of Broken Bones: A Call for National Dialogue on Hate Violence and the Limitations of Hate Crimes Legislation" for AFSC.

It’s the wrong question based on a wrong set of assumptions, and it’s already leading to the wrong responses, responses sure to keep the violence flowing: anti-queer violence, anti-Muslim violence, racist violence. And it’s sucking up all the air in the ether right now.

The news about the shooting was the first thing I saw when I woke up on Sunday. Someone who is very close to me—someone I actually call my son—had posted about it on Facebook, and I couldn’t believe what was going on.

I’m a native Floridian and lived in Orlando for 10 years, when I was still struggling to accept myself as a gay man. People I know were at Pulse that night. Some of my friends were held hostage. They had to climb through the air conditioning system to get out.

Keith Harris is a staff member at AFSC Atlanta's office, providing administrative support to the South region.