Hi everyone, My site has been alive for 2 weeks now and has had a good number of visitors, so thank you!
As the protests wane in some cities, it feels a bit like the fight is over. It’s far from over though. Many people are continuing the fight in city hall and communities rather than on the streets. I added a few updates to the Home page regarding work in North Carolina and Seattle (information on Seattle's effort also appears on the Defunding the Police page).
Our white privilege allows many of us to put the fight on the back burner to focus on our busy lives. But is that right to do, while Black and Brown people are harassed, arrested, killed and oppressed every day? I continue to hear about police violence and federal threats against protestors. It’s my choice to stay in this battle every day for the rest of my life and to challenge myself to take actions that I’m uncomfortable taking. One of those recently was the chance to testify at a city council meeting. Unfortunately that chance did not happen as the line of speakers was far too long (a good problem to have). At first, I was nervous about this, but eventually I got to where I was really excited about it. And then I was disappointed that I didn’t get to speak. But there will be more opportunities and I’m happy about the number of speakers I heard that supported defunding the police. My guess is it was about 85-90% of the speakers that day.
How can you find ways to act? I’ve added a few to the Take Action section, including actions listed by King County Equity Now and Decriminalize Seattle. Budget discussions are going on right now with the Seattle City Council, so the time to act is now. And if you are outside of Seattle, look to see what is happening locally.
If standing up politically is not your thing, check out the Black-owned businesses you can support, added midway down the Take Action section or the Black-owned independent bookstores, added to the top of the Resources section, along with a new book listing, Citizen: An American Lyric, that I read recently. When you buy from Black-owned book stores, you not only support Black businesses, but also independent book stores. Here’s a great source for buying face masks from Black-owned businesses. Just be careful of cultural appropriation of African textiles. It’s a bit subjective, but here is a great comment I found on the topic, “You can do whatever you want all the time, but as a Black woman, my first reaction is going to be to question whether or not I can trust you and your motivations. I may or may not take the time to find out, but it sets up a barrier right off the bat”. I found plenty of masks to choose from though, without feeling like they would be offensive. Hopefully I’m right and if not, hopefully someone will call me out for it.
One of my actions this last weekend was to join an anti-racist dialogue with AWARE-LA. It was an interesting experience that included open forum small group discussions. I have new friends now who are fighting the fight in Illinois and Oakland, CA and got the chance to hear about efforts going on in Los Angeles, Ashland NC and Fort Worth, TX. This is a once-a-month dialogue to build community around white anti-racism and it's open to anyone who wants to participate. Check it out! You might ask, what does this do to change how Black and Brown communities are treated. For me, it gave me strength and resolve in my actions and that others in other areas of the country are acting too, and that there are white anti-racists in some of the most conservative parts of the country. Hope, strength and community are so important in this work to sustain our efforts. I also got to meet one person who was brand new to this work and hopefully inspire her to continue.
One of the actions I hear about often is starting an anti-racism book club. I just read an interesting article on that one, here, which talks about how Black people might see that. I saw another comment somewhere that talked about how offensive it is to think about white people sitting around with wine talking with friends about the suffering of Black communities. I joined an anti-racism book club this last year with an area church. I saw the listing on Facebook and joined in, not knowing anyone in the group. It actually was quite good and I found it stretching me as an anti-racist in directions that I hadn’t taken yet. There was no wine or much laughter. It was more intentional, with a moderator, the pastor, who asked us hard, thought-provoking questions to entice is to go further into self-reflection of white privilege and systems of racism. We even read the book Good White People, which looks hard at actions such as ours. I personally feel that this was a good experience for me and that it helped me build my strength and knowledge to speak out and do more. But often, joining a book club can feel like you’re doing something, when really, you’re not doing anything that leads to change, other than changing yourself. Learning is important if you have not lived racism. Sharing and building community is important. But be sure of your intentions and intent to make meaningful change and not just be woke. If you want to start or join a book club, make it a place of learning rather than fun and include actions with the required reading. During your monthly meeting, include a group action of letter writing or phone calls to city leaders or group shopping trips to support Black and Brown businesses. Challenge each other to take actions between meetings and find additional ways to end white oppression of Black communities.
There are so many ways to act, including in your own community to challenge those around you. The hard part is starting, but once you do, you will find yourself continuing to look for more opportunities. So, take a baby step like writing to congressional leaders and grow from there. Good luck!
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