Welcome to Anti-Racist Action Portal!

Hello everyone, welcome to my new website! Antiracist Action Portal is a work in progress with a lot of information yet to come. It’s a portal of learning for White people and non-Black people of color to learn about systemic racism directed towards Black communities. While all people of color experience some form of racism, the Black experience in America needs to be called out separately since the oppression is so severe.

The ability to live in a world free from racism is very important to me. No one should be treated differently because of the color of their skin. As protests erupted worldwide and stories of police brutality and racist practices continue to fill the news, I asked myself how I could make a difference. I’ve protested many times and called elected leaders, but I wanted to do more. This website is a start to the more, but it’s definitely not the end.

I’m white, so I have no business teaching about the Black experience. But I can use my love of research to pull together the information already out there. Antiracist Action Portal is a collection of articles to educate, resources to follow, programs to inspire, and actions to take.

My inspiration came from two sources. The first, an article I read that equated white people learning about anti-racism to the following scenario. Imagine that you registered for a class that you didn’t go to for the first month. You finally show up and then expect the professor to walk you through everything the class has already spent time on, exhausting all of your fellow classmates (ie- the Black community). What you really need to do, is to take it upon yourself to borrow someone’s notes to ramp up on your own. This website is your class notes.

The other item that inspired me was when I protested with a group of friends who asked what defunding the police means. My friends are a pretty aware group, so I realized if they need help with understanding, others probably do too. This is the general audience that I’m trying to reach, those that want to be involved, but are unsure of how and are looking for more information.

Antiracist Action Portal is meant to whet your appetite. Racism is a massive topic, far too much to cover on one site. Much of the information will be geared towards Washington or Minnesota, two of my homes, but hopefully it will inspire you to research programs and action items in your own area. There will also be some nationally. Send items my way if you’d like to see them on this site. I hope to keep the action items updated going forward.

A little about me. I started learning about anti-racism roughly 2 years ago, after seeing the movie The Hate U Give and reading the book When They Call You A Terrorist, A Black Lives Matter Memoir by Asha Bandele and Patrisse Cullors. I have always deeply hated racism and oppression, but I didn’t do much about it. After that introduction, I knew I could never turn away again. I hope this website and the resources beyond will inspire you in the same way.

Doyourworkinantiracism@gmail.com