Mira Weinstein

Mira Weinstein comes to the work of disrupting white supremacy culture through organizing and political campaigns. The first time she knocked on a door was 1988, when she might have been the only person in America who thought Michael Dukakis could win the presidential election. Since then, she’s managed local and statewide field programs, managed local campaigns and provided campaign education to hundreds of activists.

With SEIU members, she helped to rebuild two public employee unions. In California, she built the state employees’ political program and brought membership in the professional classifications to over 50% for the first time. In Colorado, she rebuilt an affiliate that had lost 90% of its members; ultimately, members won an executive order - that the legislature later passed permanently - that established negotiating rights for public employees in the state.

She’s coached teachers and former teachers through local campaigns for education justice in their communities.

A light bulb went on when she started to wonder what she’d done in her campaigns that perpetuated white supremacy culture rather than disrupted it. She thought that if she was asking herself that question, other organizers were too. Her disrupting practice is based on the Characteristics of White Supremacy Culture in Organizations, by Tema Okun. This frame offers opportunities for leaders, activists, and organizers to see themselves in the work of disruption in their everyday lives. She co-facilitates a workshop called “Disrupting White Supremacy Culture,” and co-leads a quarterly livestream about the Characteristics.