It’s no overstatement to say the world feels broken at the moment. Our community has been saddened, but not surprised, to see the horrific instances of police brutality across the Atlantic, and a hideous underbelly of structural racism that it has revealed in the USA and on our own shores too. We stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, and all our Black kin.
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” Martin Luther King Jr
To our White, and non-Black audience; we’ve compiled a list of resources on how to be an active ally in this struggle. This is about being conscientiously anti-racist, about learning and listening, and doing our best to fight to abolish institutionalised racism and fight for equality.
During lockdown, some of us, understandably, may feel limited in the support we can can offer. The following list includes anti-racist reflection, work and action we can all take from home, with free-to-access resources and ways to help if you are strapped for cash. There really is no excuse.
donate
A list of UK organisations and fundraisers working directly to combat racism. This includes ways to support protesters and activists responding to recent deaths by police brutality, hate crime and state oversight of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Belly Mujinga and Tony McDade.
- Runnymede Trust – an independent racial equality think tank doing vital research to assist with policy change to irradiate racism and discrimination.
- Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust – a trust set up after the murder of Stephen Lawrence working with young people to tackle inequality in access and opportunity.
- Stop Watch – a civil society organisation promoting fair and accountable policing.
- Black Cultural Archives – an organisation dedicated to collecting, preserving and celebrating the histories of people of African descent in the UK.
- Hope Not Hate – work to build inclusive communities that are resilient to hate.
- Black Protest Legal Support UK – similarly to the bail funds helping protesters in the US, this is a pot for the Black Protest Legal UK group, enabling them to offer free legal representation and advice to Black Live Matter protesters in the UK.
Black Lives Matter (USA) have compiled a hub which includes US specific places to send your money: DONATE.
speak up
Use your political voice to lobby your MP and sign petitions demanded justice.
- Write to Them – An easy way to write to your local and national representatives. You might want to use this convenient letter template about BTP not pursuing action after Belly Mujinga’s death. Here’s another demanding a stop of UK export of teargas and rubber bullets to USA, and asking for action after the BAME COVID report was released.
- Add your voice and sign these petitions.
- Carry on campaigning for Justice for Grenfell. Our government is dragging it’s feet, and is complicit in not holding the companies profiting off of cheap flammable cladding. Follow Justice4Grenfell for updates. Learn the names of those responsible.
INTERROGATE
There are heaps of articles and toolkits circulating. We’ve found Black Lives Matter: Educate Yourself to be full of amazing links about the current situation and the causes.
- Teaching Tolerance have a brilliant breakdown introducing White Privilege. Essential reading for understanding how as white people we benefit from structural racism and where our blind spots might be.
- Building Allies is a great resource for learning to be an active ally. It is centred on accountability, kindness and growth.
Be sure to diversify where you are getting your information and news. Gal Dem and It’s Going Down are just two indie media sites who’s mission is to offer racial and anti-colonial insights on current affairs and culture right to our newsfeeds.
READ up & witness
Some non-fiction:
- Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge
- Better the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
- The End Of Policing by Alex S Vitale (free e-book here)
- The Good Immigrant edited by Nikesh Shukla
- White by Richard Dyer
- Sister, Outsider by Audre Lorde
- How To Be an Anti-Racist – Ibram X Kendi
- Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire – Akala
If fiction is more your thing: read works by Black authors, share them with your non-Black friends, start a book club and use them to start a conversation with family and friends.
- Beloved by Toni Morrison
- The White Boy Shuffle by Paul Beatty
- Girl, Women, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
- If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
- N-W by Zadie Smith
- Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
Black History Month Open Drive – This mammoth drive includes free to access writing on Afro-Futurism, Black History and the Black Panther Party. You’ll also find seminal pieces and speeches from James Baldwin, Franz Fanon, bell hooks, Angela Davis, Nelson Mandela, Zora Neale Hurston and many more. It’s comprehensive start on race and the Black experience, by some of the best thinkers since the Abolition Movement. After glutting on this free treasure trove, we suggest making a donation to Inclusive Indies, who publish Black writers and elevate minority voices.
Diversifying your reading list goes for families too!
This brilliant list by Sarah Sophie Flicker and Alyssa Klein includes accounts to follow, films to watch, podcasts to listen to and resources for parents too.
Stay safe and keep those belly fires lit,
Shambala HQ