I got swept up painting my kid’s room this weekend and it hit me that I had started distancing myself (AGAIN) from the Black Lives Matter movement because I’m a White Middle Class Cisgender woman in a heterosexual marriage and that gives me about 45 tons of privilege to disconnect from the issues at hand. SO! I decided to do a check-in for other white people trying to make sure they don’t lost steam. This is a marathon, not a sprint.
Anyone started reading any of the books they bought? How about listened to any new podcast recommendations? Have you contacted your representatives about anything? Watched a documentary? Signed any petitions? Challenged the racist perspectives of anyone you know? Remember – Ibram X Kendi says that we *all* have to be deliberate about being “anti-racist” because our default is not that. Let’s hold each other accountable!
Here are a variety of doable challenges that hopefully touches a variety of types of doers. Don’t lose steam! Maybe choose one item on the list to do before the end of the week? Or more! Just make sure you’re staying engaged in whatever way is sustainable for you. This movement takes ALL of us but it’s going to take awhile so buckle in and find a rhythm.
- Contact your Congressperson and let them know you support H.R. 40 a bill before Congress that would create a commission to study the effects of slavery and discrimination from 1619 to the present and recommend appropriate remedies. If you don’t know who your Congress-person is (Huntsville…It’s Mo Brooks) then go here: https://www.house.gov/htbin/findrep
- HUNTSVILLE specifically: Contact your city council representative (you can email! If you don’t know your rep look here) about how you’d like the Confederate Monument moved. Many cities in Alabama have circumvented protocol because the outcry was so strong, let’s be loud.
- SIGN: ACLU petition to end militarization of our police
- Watch “The Kalief Browder Story” on Netflix
- Read the Article “There’s overwhelming evidence that the criminal justice system is racist. Here’s the proof.“
- Pre-Order – “Punching the Air” a YA novel written by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam of the Exonerated Five. You can order it for your kids but as a big YA fan I would also encourage you reading it too.
- Follow Zinn Education Project on Facebook and mark to always see their posts “first” so every time you open up Facebook you’ll see whatever new historical post they’ve done.
- Buy “Anti-Racist Baby” for your next baby shower (comes out next week)
So I meant to check-in immediately and got distracted. Then I came back and read your wreck post and got distracted again. I am SO GLAD You and Nyoka are okay! And that you had an awesome swarm of ladies come to your assistance. If it makes you feel better, my body’s fight-or-flight mechanism tends to be flight: I faint in any sort of weird medical situation. I react differently to other kinds of stress and sometimes I snap into a go-mode and do great, but I have no way of predicting or controlling what it’s gonna be. I’ve pretty much passed out at every doctor’s office I’ve ever visited. All that to say, biology is weird. But anyway back to my check-in: I joined Be the Bridge on FB a while ago and I finally have been carving out time to work through all of the required units during our mandatory “no commenting” period for newcomers. I also started curating a list of things to watch, though I haven’t watched any of them yet.
I am trying
Attended 2 small rallies. I cant march
Participating in church book club. Ist read The Color of Compromise. The history of racism in the church
Selma is the movie night choice tonight
Read Brown Girl Dreaming and The Watsons go to Birmingham on facebook live. I have also read several childrens books on racism and acceptance on FB live
I am trying
Hope to keep going. This is a marathon