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SWIPE IT FORWARD

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Fare-beating is one of the top reasons why Black New Yorkers are arrested. To push-back against this criminalization of poverty, the NYC Chapter participates in Swipe It Forward — which are days of action where BYP100 members swipe in hundreds of Black and brown New Yorkers into the subway for free and encourage of a culture of New Yorkers swiping fellow New Yorkers in. Swipe It Forward actions are also utilized to educate people, not only on their rights as public transit passengers, but also on the issue of broken windows policing and how it is directly linked to issues of housing and displacement because of policies like Permanent Exclusion.

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J. MARION SIMS

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As a part of the movement to challenge symbols of oppression, the New York City Chapter successfully campaigned to remove the J. Marion Sims statue. J. Marion Sims was a gynecologist who purchased enslaved Black women and used them as guinea pigs for his surgical experiments. He repeatedly performed genital surgery on Black women without anesthesia, because according to him, “Black women don't feel pain". Rather than being denounced, Sims was crowned the “father of modern gynecology,” and a statue of him was erected outside of the New York Academy of Medicine. After the New York Parks Department ignored repeated calls from community members and organizations to remove the statue, NYC Chapter led a dramatic art-based action, demanding that the monument be taken down. As a result of years of collective community action, the statue was removed in 2018.

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CAMPAIGN H.O.M.E.

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H.O.M.E. (Housing Over Monitoring and Exclusions) is a campaign to end Permanent Exclusion, the policy being enforced by NYCHA (New York City Housing Authority) and the NYPD which calls for anyone living in public housing in New York City who gets arrested or convicted of a crime to be evicted from their home.

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Campaign H.O.M.E. is currently established in the Marble Hill NYCHA development, where the chapter engages residents through town halls, screenings, and political education workshops. During the winter of 2018, we had a town hall inviting residents to give input on the campaign and share the issues currently impacting NYCHA residents, including lead poisoning, access to food, healthcare, and legal services. As a result, Campaign H.O.M.E. was revamped to also tackle the myriad of issues residents face each day.