Building an Effective Campaign for Justice: NCBI Atlanta Chapter Meeting

As part of the Racial Justice Campaign's continuing commitment to stop Operation Meth Merchant, Campaign Organizer Deepali Gokhale and Dan Horowitz de Garcia of Communities United for Action, Power and Justice, attended the Thursday, January 26th meeting of the National Coalition Building Institute's Atlanta chapter and its Agnes Scott College affiliate. NCBI exists to assist grassroots activist organizations by training leaders in the effective bridge-building that will allow them to eliminate intergroup conflicts.

Gokhale and Horowitz were invited to represent the campaign at Agnes Scott by NCBI Atlanta Caucus Leaders Joanne Demark (LGBTQ Constituency) and GeraldBody (Black/African Heritage and Men's Constituencies). De Garcia presented an overview of the prison industrial complex, while Gokhale recounted the atrocities of Operation Meth Merchant's targeting of South Asian convenience store owners in North Georgia and outlined the Racial Justice Campaign's efforts to fight back on behalf of the marginalized immigrants.

The meeting provided the nearly 30 listeners with valuable information on immigrant rights, internal barriers to activism, and the level of commitment required to take activism efforts to the next level. Those gathered were actively engaged in fruitful discourse on the issues of internalized oppression and the goals of activism. Attendees left the meeting with constructive tools to empower them to assist the South Asian families impacted by the racial profiling of law enforcement officials in the northwest corner of the state.