Black Lives Matter - How To Be A Better, Informed Ally

Black Lives Matter – How To Be A Better, Informed Ally

If you are looking for ways to be a better ally to the Black community, here is a list of things you can do now. Consistent effort, the desire to listen and learn, empathy, perseverance, and informed allyship are all elements needed to push and sustain change. Remember, it’s not the job of our Black friends, family members, neighbors and coworkers to educate us, that’s our work to do.

Where To Donate and What To Sign

This is THE BEST SOURCE I have found that has dozens and dozens of petitions, organizations supporting Black Lives Matter, Black-owned businesses and protesters, donation sites for victims of police brutality, and more… all compiled in one place!

REGISTER TO VOTE IN CALIFORNIA HERE

Election Dates Here

Podcasts to Listen To

1619

About Race

Code Switch

Intersectionality Matters!

Momentum: A Race Forward Podcast

Pod For The Cause

Pod Save The People

Movies and Series To Watch

Explained: The Racial Wealth Gap

Time: The Kalief Browder Story

When They See Us

13th

American Son

The Hate U Give

Accounts To Follow and Creators To Diversify Your Feed

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Books To Educate Yourself

1. So You Want to Talk About Race

by Ijeoma Oluo

“In So You Want to Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo guides readers of all races through subjects ranging from intersectionality and affirmative action to “model minorities” in an attempt to make the seemingly impossible possible: honest conversations about race and racism, and how they infect almost every aspect of American life. “

2. How to Be an Antiracist

by Ibram X. Kendi

“Racism intersects with class and culture and geography and even changes the way we see and value ourselves. In How to Be an Antiracist, Kendi takes listeners through a widening circle of antiracist ideas – from the most basic concepts to visionary possibilites – that will help listeners see all forms of racism clearly, understand their poisonous consequences, and work to oppose them in our systems and in ourselves.”

3. Heavy: An American Memoir

by Kiese Laymon

“You won’t be able to put [this memoir] down…It is packed with reminders of how black dreams get skewed and deferred, yet are also pregnant with the possibility that a kind of redemption may lie in intimate grappling with black realities” (The Atlantic).

4. The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America

by Richard Rothstein

“Exploding the myth of de facto segregation arising from private prejudice or the unintended consequences of economic forces, Rothstein describes how the American government systematically imposed residential segregation: with undisguised racial zoning; public housing that purposefully segregated previously mixed communities; subsidies for builders to create whites-only suburbs; tax exemptions for institutions that enforced segregation; and support for violent resistance to African Americans in white neighborhoods.”

5. Between The World and Me

by Ta-Nehisi Coates

“Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden?”

6. The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life, Freedom, and Justice

by Anthony Hinton

“In 1985, Anthony Ray Hinton was arrested and charged with two counts of capital murder in Alabama. Stunned, confused, and only twenty-nine years old, Hinton knew that it was a case of mistaken identity and believed that the truth would prove his innocence and ultimately set him free. But with no money and a different system of justice for a poor black man in the South, Hinton was sentenced to death by electrocution.”

7. Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do

by Dr. Jennifer Eberhardt

“How do we talk about bias? How do we address racial disparities and inequities? What role do our institutions play in creating, maintaining, and magnifying those inequities? What role do we play? With a perspective that is at once scientific, investigative, and informed by personal experience, Dr. Jennifer Eberhardt offers us the language and courage we need to face one of the biggest and most troubling issues of our time.”

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

by Robin DiAngelo

“Referring to the defensive moves that white people make when challenged racially, white fragility is characterized by emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and by behaviors including argumentation and silence. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium and prevent any meaningful cross-racial dialogue. In this in-depth exploration, DiAngelo examines how white fragility develops, how it protects racial inequality, and what we can do to engage more constructively.”