Letter from the Saddle
Far from a “corona-vacation,” this time of pandemic and protests has been an opportunity for Bike East Bay to deepen our commitment to ending systemic inequities in biking and transportation.
Bike East Bay is leaning hard into the anti-racism and police abolition work that Black organizers, including the Anti Police-Terror Project and the Ella Baker Center, are leading locally and nationally. We’ve long known that Black people who walk and bike are much more likely to be stopped by police. Yet, “staying in the bike lane” has yielded only limited wins, like removing police enforcement from local Vision Zero strategies.
Black Lives Matter. Bike East Bay’s staff, board, and members are dancing, yelling, and painting it in the streets. Following the leadership of racial justice and transportation justice organizers around the country, we’re loudly calling to defund the police and invest in community in cities around the East Bay. As a bike movement, we will never remove racial disparities in policing until we unmake a system that was created by white fear to police Black bodies.
And we can do so much more. Whiteness and racism shows up in bicycle advocacy in many ways. I am writing this as one of very few people of color leading a bicycle advocacy organization in the United States. Like most bicycle advocacy organizations, our membership is overwhelmingly white: at least 73% according to our most recent membership survey.
We must look closely at our biases as a majority-white organization. As directed by our strategic plan, Bike East Bay staff hold ourselves accountable, examining why and how we engage on infrastructure and outreach projects because of the racial makeup of our staff and membership. This reflection is important because we get many more requests — and it is easier to build community support — for bike infrastructure in zip codes where we have an active membership. By recognizing our biases as an organization, we work more authentically for transportation justice, and move beyond only building bike lanes in the wealthier, whiter, or rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods where many of our members live.
There’s lots to do wherever you are on the journey to anti-racism. Join a Black Lives Matter ride, read an anti-racist book, have a hard conversation with your family, donate to Black organizations, and actively organize to build new systems. Much of our work as a white-dominant bike movement will be in getting uncomfortable, releasing the privilege that we have held, and rising again as a multiracial movement for mobility, environmental, and racial justice. I look forward to continuing this work with you.
Ride on,
Ginger Jui
Executive Director
P.S. Self- and community-care are important parts of racial justice work. I hope you’re taking care of yourself, connecting with family and community, and staying active. For a local getaway, check out my favorite bikeable beaches.
