Let’s not make this a week-long trend: white people NEED to show up for the black community and BIPOC after the hashtags have stopped trending, and here’s how!

This week, it feels inherently wrong to post about anything other than this subject.

The nationwide riots sweeping the US, which were sparked by the brutal murder of unarmed black man George Floyd by a white police officer (with a history of violence against BIPOC!), have proved to be something of a catalyst for many white people (myself included) to suddenly examine their own consciences and realise that, after perhaps years of saying “I’m not racist!”, this has not made them magically not racist after all.

I’ve spent much more time online than usual over the last few days, trying to find more ways in which I could help black communities beyond just showing solidarity on social media. As important as it is to speak up and not be complicit by remaining silent by posting on social media, this action also feels rather passive. Social media fuels trends, and I have privately wondered how many of my fellow white people- including myself- would genuinely commit to helping to make changes after a week or so passes and the media is fixing on something else. Behind a thin veil of “wokeness”, so many of us have instead continued to benefit from our white privilege.

The Internet, books, films and documentaries exist for informing their consumers, and white people must now take full advantage of these tools to independently educate themselves (we always shouldn’t be relying on BIPOC for this- this is asking for their free emotional labour and is deeply unfair!) long after #justiceforgeorgefloyd and #blacklivesmatter stops trending, along with other active measures such as protesting, signing petitions and donating. If there is one thing which my research has taught me, it is that the journey to anti-racism is a continuous journey, which may well never end for white people, because the societies in which we have grown up in are so inherently racist that we are born into a system which teaches us white supremacist values. This is a minor discomfort, however, in the face of the suffering endured by BIPOC throughout their lives.

Now, armed with the Internet as my guide, I have tried- to the best of my abilities- to source up a comprehensive (but NON-EXHAUSTIVE!) list of resources and activities for white people seeking to become much better allies to BIPOC, and most especially to the black community. This includes petitions, where to donate to, books, films, documentaries and podcasts! I just thought it would be helpful to put literally EVERYTHING I have found into one mega-post.  These findings are based from recommendations, my personal recommendations and my own previous research!

PETITIONS:

– For the most recent victims :

. George Floyd :

https://www.change.org/p/mayor-jacob-frey-justice-for-george-floyd?recruiter=1096617288&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial&utm_term=psf_combo_share_abi&recruited_by_id=2943f820-a174-11ea-b563-a538d17ee3bd

https://act.colorofchange.org/sign/justiceforfloyd_george_floyd_minneapolis

. Breonna Taylor:

https://www.change.org/p/andy-beshear-justice-for-breonna-taylor

. Ahmaud Arbery:

https://www.runwithmaud.com/

. Tony McDade:

. http://chng.it/LkxpW2Ptdj

DONATE:

. MN Freedom Fund https://minnesotafreedomfund.org/

. Black Visions Collective https://secure.everyaction.com/4omQDAR0oUiUagTu0EG-Ig2

. Reclaim the Block https://secure.everyaction.com/zae4prEeKESHBy0MKXTIcQ2

. Louisville Community Bail Fund https://actionnetwork.org/fundraising/louisville-community-bail-fund/

. NAACP https://www.naacp.org/

. Official George Floyd Memorial Fund: https://www.gofundme.com/f/georgefloyd

. Black Trans Advocacy Coalition https://blacktrans.org/

. Action Bail Fund https://secure.actblue.com/donate/wp4bl

. Brooklyn Bail Fund https://brooklynbailfund.org/donate

. Unicorn Riot https://secure.givelively.org/donate/the-bail-project

. Black Lives Matter https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ms_blm_homepage_2019

BOOKS (Fiction and Non-Fiction):

. Freedom Is A Constant Struggle by Angela Davis

. Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge

. They Can’t Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, And A New Era In America’s Racial Justice Movement by Wesley Lowery

. Beloved by Toni Morrison

. Between The World And Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration In The Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander

. The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

. Native Son by Richard Wright

. Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad

. Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward

. The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B Dubois

. How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi

. Black Reconstruction in America by W.E.B Dubois

. The Good Immigrant: 21 Writers Explore What It Means To Be Black, Asian, And Minority Ethnic In Britain Today edited by Nikesh Shukla

. Your Silence Will Not Protect You by Audre Lorde

. Small Island by Andrea Levy

. Americanah by Chimamanda Adichie

. White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo

ARTICLES/ESSAYS (many of these are authored by Rachel Cargle in Harper’s Bazaar US column because she is INCREDIBLE):

. https://medium.com/equality-includes-you/what-white-people-can-do-for-racial-justice-f2d18b0e0234

. https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/politics/a22717725/what-is-toxic-white-feminism/

. https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/politics/a25221603/thanksgiving-dinner-conversation-how-to-talk-to-family-about-politics/

. https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/politics/a25747603/silencing-black-voices/

. https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2017/sep/26/employees-on-workplace-racism-under-representation-bame

. http://www.vqronline.org/essays-articles/2014/10/price-black-ambition

. http://lithub.com/walking-while-black/

. https://tetw.org/Race (a list of US-focused essays from black journalists and writers)

DOCUMENTARIES:

. The 13^th, dir. Ava DuVernay

. Vox Explained- ep. 1- “The Racial Wealth Gap”, dir. n/a

. The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross, dir.

. Dark Girls, dir. D. Channsin Berry and Bill Duke

. More than a Month, dir. Shukree Hassan

. In My Blood It Runs, dir. Maya Newell

FILMS/TV SERIES:

. Fruitvale Station, dir. Ryan Coogler

. When They See Us, dir. Ava DuVernay

. Get Out, dir. Jordan Peele

. The Hate U Give, dir. George Tillman Jr.

. Hidden Figures, dir. Theodore Melfi

. BlacKKlansman, dir. Spike Lee

. Boyz n the Hood, dir. John Singleton

. If Beale Street Could Talk, dir. Barry Jenkins

. Moonlight, dir. Barry Jenkins

. Mudbound, dir. Dee Rees

PODCASTS:

. The Nod by Brittany Luse and Eric Eddings

. The Stoop by Leila Day and Hana Baba

. Identity Politics by Ikhlas Saleem and Makkah Ali

. Code Switch- National Public Radio

. About Race- Reni Eddo-Lodge

Hope this has been helpful! 🙂