8.18.26 Action Center Update

Written By Side With Love

Welcome to the Action Center Weekly Update. Each week, we’ll share:

  • A brief analysis of critical issues in this political moment

  • Immediate actions you can take

  • Resources to deepen knowledge and strengthen our collective work to side with love

Nothing is inevitable. Justice movements are built by ordinary people who come together to defeat oppression and nurture a loving world. You are not alone. We have power. Together, we can create a just and thriving future.

Movements are strongest when we act together. Organize with your teams and networks, and take these actions in community. For practical tools, see our Organizing School and Trainings & Webinars.

Decriminalization & Immigration

Core Principle: Criminalization and dehumanization deny the dignity of our communities. Safety cannot come at the expense of others. As people of faith, we proclaim a future of care, abundance, and mutuality—not domination.

The Update:
In this time of moral crisis, our faith calls us to live our values through courageous and prophetic action, and that is what Unitarian Universalists across the country are doing. As Mr. Rogers said in a crisis, “look for the helpers.” Amidst the ongoing avalanche of news of state violence at home and abroad, let us lift up the stories of freedom fighters past and present doing acts small and large in service of growing our movements to build a world where every child and family is safe and thriving.

Take Action:

  • Start planning for a local Ritual of Resistance using this toolkit and our August 26th training, Rituals of Resistance: A Training on Faithful Witness from Delaney Hall. Hosted by UU Solidarity Initiative, learn with some of the UU leaders who have been leading the faithful resistance at the Newark detention camp, Delaney Hall. Take home concrete tools and rituals for your community developed and used by Charlene Walker, Executive Director of Faith in New Jersey, Rev. Dr. Robin Tanner, minister at Beacon in Summit NJ and Rev. Anya Sammler-Michael, minister at UU Congregation at Montclair. Sign up.

  • Connect with an ICE watch group near you—there is a role for everyone from home or on the streets.

Resources:

  • Read:

    • Black August is an acknowledgment of the countless organizers, activists, and freedom fighters who sacrificed their freedom and lives in the struggle for Black Liberation and highlights the radical tradition of Black resistance against anti-Black state violence and systemic oppression.

  • Learn:

  • Join:

Climate Justice

Core Principle: A just and loving world is also a flourishing one. A fossil-free future is possible, where clean energy is a human right and all beings thrive. To get there, we must create new systems, norms, and practices.

The Update:
In the prophetic words of Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism (BLUU), the "most directly affected people are experts at their own lives. Those most directly affected by racial injustice & oppression should be in leadership, at the center of our movement, and telling their stories directly." For this week’s update, we are highlighting the climate resilience of Black American communities. From the Altadena community fighting climate gentrification after the 2025 Eaton fire in California, to the Randolph community resisting the gas power plant Salt River Project in Arizona, and beyond, Black folks assert their dignity from the front lines of the climate crisis. As we witness in Detroit’s 2,200 urban farms, the Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice’s grassroots wastewater organizing, the inspired climate economy work of Black Girl Environmentalist, and more, Black communities lead climate justice efforts across the country.

African Americans are 75% more likely than other Americans to live near facilities that produce hazardous waste. It is well established that extractive industries, especially fossil fuels, are poisoning Black Americans. Many Black communities are “legacy sites,” sometimes called “fence-line” or “frontline” communities. In the words of the Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform (EJHA),

Legacy sites refer to communities burdened by longstanding targeted and intentional structural and institutional racism, often including segregation by design and Jim Crow laws. Adding to these deep-seated disparities, high concentrations of hazardous and polluting facilities, incinerators for medical and chemical wastes and incinerators for the production of energy as well as chemical and municipal waste dumps have disproportionately made their way into these communities. These industrial operations and practices harm residents of these legacy sites on acute, chronic and intergenerational levels. These impacts affect virtually every aspect of what would otherwise be a safe, prosperous and healthy way of life.

In Texas, “race is the best predictor of where pollution goes.” Across the country, “extreme heat is not an equal-opportunity killer.” For example, the 2023 Chicago heat map campaign identified an egregious 22 degree temperature variation between majority-Black and majority-white neighborhoods, demonstrating the ongoing deadly consequences of redlining and the intense need for equitable climate resilience solutions.

Environmental racism rejects the inherent worth and dignity of every person.

Environmental racism severs the interdependence of all life.

In the face of longstanding environmental racism, Black communities fight for their dignity. In each of the above examples, Black folks are organizing. In Birmingham, Alabama, the Greater-Birmingham Alliance to Stop Pollution (G.A.S.P.) is working to secure a moratorium on a large data center that is projected to require vast amounts of water and dirty energy to operate. On Chicago’s South Side, My Block My Hood My City (MBMHMC) has provided free box fans and water to senior residents in need during the summer months for the last six years. In New York State, Soul Fire Farm, an Afro-Indigenous centered community farm and training center dedicated to uprooting racism and seeding sovereignty in the food system, leads on regenerative agroecology and food sovereignty work. The Solutions Project’s and NAACP’s 6th Annual Black Climate Week highlighted visionary Black-led climate work.

To return to the wise leadership of Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism: “The Movement for Black Lives calls on the Unitarian Universalist faith — a faith willing to make the bold proclamation that each person inherently matters — to live up to that claim by working toward a future in which Black lives are truly valued in our society.”

Take Action:

Resources:

Together, we practice the world we long for. Together, we win.

Side With Love
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8.11.26 Action Center Update