This week it did not feel right to be putting out my own voice during a time when the voices of the black community deserve all of our attention and amplification. So, instead this week I will be listing for you some resources that will highlight both ways for you to educate yourself moving forward and what you can do to activate and advocate for those who need you right now. Please remember to challenge yourself to do and learn more, but kind enough to yourself to accept correction and change. If you have more questions about what you can do to help or ways to learn how to better yourself and become more aware and anti-racist please don’t hesitate to contact me! Just remember to not make black people responsible for your education on racism. There is a google and plenty of black authors, podcastors, activists, and more that you can invest in and listen to for that!
Educate
Books You Can Read:
- Be The Bridge, by Latasha Morrison
- White Fragility, by Robin DiAngelo
- The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
- The Bluest Eye and Home by Toni Morrison (Home, to this day, is a book that I think back on frequently and especially whenever I am reminded of the way that our health care system has failed black women)
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou
- The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, by Michelle Alexander
Podcasts You Can Listen to:
- Code Switch, hosted by Shereen Marisol Meraji and Gene Demby (NPR)
- Truth’s Table, hosted by Michelle Higgins, Christina Edmondson, and Ekemini Uwan
- Intersectionality Matters, hosted by Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw
- 1619, hosted by Nikole Hannah-Jonas and created by the New York Times
- Honorable Mention: The Podluck, hosted by Megan Westra. She uses her platform as a means to highlight the voice and insight of many people from the black community!
Movies and Documentaries You Can Watch:
- When They See Us- Netflix (A True Crime Docuseries)
- Explained: The Racial Wealth Gap- Netflix (An explanation of white privilege)
- 13th- Netflix (A documentary that analyzes the over-criminalisation of black people within the U.S. prison system)
- Dear White People- Netflix (A netflix series that highlights issues of race within American universities)
- If Beale Street Could Talk- Amazon Prime Video and Hulu (American romantic drama film based off the novel by James Baldwin)
The second half of this post is going to be about how to ACTIVATE and begin to be proactively anti-racist! Here are some things that you can do to help out the black community right now.
Activate
Sign Petitions!
#BlackOutTuesday was a big show of solidarity with the black community. HOWEVER, a way that is just as easy is signing online petitions! It literally is just as quick and maybe even easier than thinking of a caption for an Instagram post. I will be linking a few resources below that include very comprehensive lists of petitions you can sign with their links! I have taken about an hour of the past few nights just signing petitions, it is an easy and free way to actively support!
Donate!
Again, I will be linking a few resources below that have compiled lists of where and where not to donate your money (do not give Shaun King your money). There are also options for donation that actually involve giving NO MONEY! Just by watching some videos on Youtube (again linked below) and playing straight through their ads these monetized video’s proceeds will be going directly towards worthy causes! Again, super easy!
Protest!
In person:
Join marches and protests if that is where God is leading you to be! Remember that it is not about you, remember it is your job to PROTECT those around you, remember that it is your job to AMPLIFY the voices of the black community– not to have your own heard. Be safe and, this should go without saying, be PEACEFUL.
Digital:
Also, remember you can protest digitally as well! Share useful updates, information, and resources! The more we circulate what is going on, the more we can make others aware, and activate people in other places as well. We cannot rely on the media to depict the full story, so fact-check your sources and use social media to share the truth.
Hardcore Prayer!
My fellow Christians, it is time to fully throw-down in prayer. Not performatively, not just in church, or in a microphone, but at home, all alone PRAY. I mean hard core rebuking every spirit and principality. Tear down every stronghold, every thought and will contrary to the will and character of Christ. “Bind up and loose” with your speech and prayer (Matthew 16:19). BLESS these people, BLESS these future generations that are to come, BLESS the work that is being done in the name of Jesus! Declare that we will see the end of this oppression in Jesus’ name!
I want to challenge you to not just pick one item off of this list and count your job done though. Please, please, please try combining at least 2 or 3 of these items in your efforts to be active in your advocacy every day. Prayer is important and necessary, but your prayers alone won’t get these petitions signed with enough signatures.
Below, I am linking a couple of the websites previously mentioned that will link you to resources for petitions, protests, and places to donate. If anything I have written is misinformation or wrong please let me know! I’m open to learn and I’m open to correction. Stay safe out there, y’all. Let’s educate and activate.
Resources for petitions, protest maps, donation, and further education links:
***Disclaimer: this should all be a starting point, not a finish line for those who are seeking to become more educated and active as an advocate and anti-racist. These lists I have compiled are from research I’ve done and I’ve tried to make sure I have experience with personally reading/watching/listening to at least half of everything I’ve suggested. I have so much faith that we as a society are breaking ground and beginning a new era. Let’s move forward towards justice.***
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