How are we?
Like many of you, I’ve been taking time to try to listen, learn, and reflect over the past week. So many senseless tragedies have come to a head and resulted in a much needed public outcry for action.
I’ve been sitting in a lot of sadness, shame, anger, frustration, and exhaustion while meditating on current events and my own privilege. Conversations I’ve had with my close friends and husband have been about holding ourselves more accountable to learning more, listening more, and being more aware and involved. To make this moment a true turning point in lifting up the black community.
Black Lives Matter. They more than matter, and if I’ve learned anything this week, it is that there are so many, many ways we can be better allies in the Black Lives Matter movement.
So much amazing legwork by others has been done and I wanted to bookmark the articles, videos, words, and images that have pushed me to learn more this past week, in hopes that it provides something of value to others as well.
This 4-minute cartoon gives a very effective introduction to what systemic racism is.
This video explaining protesting by Trevor Noah was so incredibly eye opening – I truthfully watched it several times and encourage you to take the seven minutes to pause and do the same if you haven’t yet.
Another video from Trevor Noah explaining reparations — a coworker shared this with me the other day and he articulates this so well.
This powerful video that puts the relationship between black communities and the police into humbling perspective.
Micheal Che’s response to ‘All Lives Matter‘ underscores exactly what good comedy can do: make you think deeply — in this case, about why anyone would feel threatened by the phrase ‘Black Lives Matter.’
MOVIES:
I haven’t seen any of these but am planning on watching the first on this list this week (Amazon just made it available for free!)
I Am Not Your Negro, James Baldwin Documentary (currently streaming for free on Amazon if you have a Prime membership)
13th (Netflix)
The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution (PBS, streams online for free)
When They See Us (Netflix)
Skip Amazon and purchase these books from a Black-owned bookstore, many of whom are also donating portions of sales to worthy causes. | * Indicates ones I’ve read and highly recommend
A couple great articles:
Social Change: Everyone Has a Role to Play — Medium
America’s Racial Contract is Showing — The Atlantic
First and foremost: Register to Vote!
You can keep track of local and national election dates here!
(I personally have been guilty of ignoring local elections and am challenging myself to not do so moving forward)
Sign Petitions:
Donate, if you can, or explore other ways to get involved with:
Tip: for donating, take advantage of employee match here if you can! Or even reach out to someone who can and pool your money together to go further!
Take advantage of charitable contributions from retailers you might frequent:
10% of purchases from Everlane’s 100% Human line goes to the ACLU
Sephora is allowing you to convert your Beauty Insider Points into donation dollars for The National Black Justice Coalition
Boston’s favorite local cafe Flour is also letting you turn your loyalty points into donation funds for The Massachusetts Bail Fund. You can also add to the donation, and Flour will match the donation!
Though this is by no means an exhaustive list, it may still be a bit overwhelming. That’s okay, you don’t have to do it ALL, and certainly not all at once! But I do hope you’ll bookmark this and come back to it over time, joining me in watching, reading, and getting involved in some of the things above.
Keep sharing with me too, its been encouraging to see so many resources being eagerly passed around right now!
If you’d like to see more, I also keep a highlight reel on my Insta page.
Love to you all! x