Areas of Focus
Education
Strategy For Black Lives believes in educational equity and access as a human right. We support the real integration of our public schools, which are among the most segregated in the United States. As an organization, we also understand the disparity in resources across our state, and that some schools receive better funding, and more support based on their zip code. Strategy for Black Lives firmly believes that your neighborhood should not be the determining factor of the quality of public education you receive at school. We further support making the cost of attendance at New York public colleges and universities free for all New Yorkers, regardless of income or documentation status. We hope to ensure that our public school system continues to provide opportunities for black families and uplift future generations.
Criminal Justice
Strategy For Black Lives believes in restructuring our criminal justice system so that it is fair and unbiased towards Black people. Far too long, black people have been incarcerated for petty crimes, or on certain occasions crimes that they never committed. We also believe in the demilitarization, defunding, and dismantling of racist policing in our communities. We hope to someday live in communities where we protect ourselves. Our goal is to completely overhaul our current law enforcement training so that an officer’s first thought is to de-escalate any non-violent confrontation rather than reaching for a gun. Strategy For Black Lives prioritizes equity in all aspects of our communities especially in our criminal justice system, where biases and racial injustice have set off an even larger chain reaction of inequities in our neighborhoods.
Housing
Strategy for Black Lives advocates for policies that ensure sustainable living spaces in New York, with an emphasis on safe, accessible, and affordable housing for low- and middle-income renters and homeowners. This includes widespread implementation of rent control, a tax on unoccupied residences, and designing public housing with an emphasis on residential health, dignified living, and community development. We recognize that housing policy must be executed only with the input and consent of local communities. As we are living in a Post-COVID economy, we have realized that many New Yorkers have been laid off, unemployed, or struggling to make ends meet. As an organization, Strategy for Black Lives fully supports “Canceling Rent” for the thousands of New Yorkers who have nowhere to go and no way to make ends meet. Housing is not only a necessity but a human right, and we will fight to end the homelessness.
Health
Strategy for Black Lives intends to fight for public health justice for the betterment of the current social determinants of health that currently plague NYC. Medicine does not just involve hard science, but also touches on politics, ethics, civics, education, and housing just to name a few. It is our duty to engage with our communities to push for a more equitable access to healthcare for people of all races, genders and ages. We at strategy for Black Lives also seek to drive out racism from our public healthcare system by targeting current policies that propagate prejudice and racism and undermine the relevance and influence of cultural competency as it pertains to equitable healthcare for all people. We intend to advocate for changes in medical education as it pertains to the training of clinicians in a more holistic method. We also intend to advocate for changes within the healthcare system that will ensure that everyone has access to affordable and equitable healthcare, inclusive of approved non-Western medicinal resources, despite their personal identification and financial status.