Last Updated on November 28, 2022 by ThoughtsStained
Welcome to the latest in my Allyship Check-In series! This series shares resources to help each of us live more antiracist lives. It contains articles, blog posts, multimedia, book recommendations, petitions and more.
These resources are curated by my own research and by sharing resources I’ve learned through, from various organizations, like: Anti-Racist Daily, Prism, The 19th, them and more. I hope this Allyship Check-In allows you to find something below that speaks to you!
Also, please consider supporting these organizations above. While I am simply linking up and sharing articles, they are the ones doing the work: the research, the reporting, the writing, the editing, the labor.
Let’s support their work, especially financially, so they can continue to do it.
Series Background
I started this Allyship Check-In “series” of blog posts in 2020 to share more resources to help with each of our own anti-racist journeys. I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the fact that many of the resources I’m linking down below come from the hard work of those on the Anti-Racist Daily team (the ARD) , to which I subscribe for daily email updates. Many of the readings, actions and donation links come from what I learn from their articles. As such, I have become a monthly Patreon donor, because you need to pay BIPOC people for the work they do in helping dismantle racism, not just take what you can for free. I hope you consider subscribing and supporting them, too, especially if you are a white reader.
Like I mentioned before, while a lot of these resources are tied and focused to the Black Lives Matter movement, I have started to incorporate other resources about more global events, as well.
Please keep the comments kind and constructive–though, please never hesitate to call me out if I’ve misstepped, if you are comfortable doing that emotional labor you shouldn’t have to do in the first place. I appreciate your assistance in helping me learn and continue to grow into the actual ally I want to be.
Last caveat: I listed a bunch of resources, because I hope you will click on the links and listen to the BIPOC voices who are speaking up, instead of hearing my take. I’m using this as a space to amplify their voices–not add my own commentary to the mix.

Staying Informed
This month’s Allyship Check-in is, as usual, heavy with reading material. This month, it includes: midterm results, attacks on queer communities, education barriers, strikes and more.
Readings
Highlights from the ARD
- We Can’t End Affirmative Action Without Fixing Racial Biases in Education by Nicole Cardoza
- The BTS Army and the Neverending “Forgotten War” by Andrew Lee
Politics
- Toxic Beauty Standards are Causing a Public Health Crisis that Costs the US Economy more than $501 Billion Annually, new Dove Study Finds by Dove for Cision PR Newswire
- Democrats Will Hold the Senate. Here’s What That Means for LGBTQ+ Rights by James Factora for them
- Representation, protection, restitution: Women lay out key demands at COP27 climate summit by Jessica Kutz for The 19th
- NAACP climate director explains why now is the time to fight environmental racism by Jessica Kutz for The 19th
- 2022 Is the Deadliest Year Yet for U.S. Mass Shootings, New Data Shows by Anya Zoledziowski for VICE News
LGBTQIA+ Rights and Abortion Access
- Where to find resources and how to help after the Club Q shooting in Colorado Springs by Sarah Bures for CPR News
- On #EconTwitter, #MeToo anger is boiling over by Jennifer Gerson for The 19th
- Abortion rights win big in midterm elections as the red wave crumbles by Alexandria Martinez for Prism
- The violence queer and trans people face is state-sanctioned by Lara Witt for Prism
- FIFA Banned Players’ LGBTQ+ Solidarity Symbols at the World Cup by James Factora for them
- How Anti-Trans Rhetoric Set the Stage for the Club Q Shooting by James Factora for them
Education
- Here’s what you should know if you applied for student loan forgiveness by Cora Lewis for PBS News Hour
- 48,000 academic workers start the largest strike of the year across University of California campuses by Brenton Zola for Prism
- Unions offer graduate student workers a stronger platform to secure living wages and reasonable workloads by Sravya Tadepalli for Prism
- What’s stopping more Native Americans from graduating college? The cost, a landmark study finds. by Nadra Nittle for The 19th
Fatphobia and Body Positivity
- The Daily Realities of Being Fat, Black, and Queer in Public Spaces by Da’Shaun Harrison for them
- My Doctor Fat-Shamed Me — And I’m Not the Only One by Marie Southard Ospina for Healthline
- SFF’s Big Fat Problem by R.K. Duncan for Tor.Com
- 5 Expert Strategies to Handle Body Insecurity Over the Holidays by Naveen Kumar for them
Other Miscellaneous Reads
- Musk has owned Twitter under a week and big names are already leaving the platform, complaining about a hate surge, and calling for tighter regulation by Steve Mollman for Fortune
- Mental-Health Days Are Only a Band-Aid for Burnout by Jonathan Malesic for The Atlantic
- Gender equity at work is stalling after ‘mass exodus’ of women during pandemic, new research finds by Sophie Kiderlin for CNBC at Work
- Here’s what you need to know about the COVID bivalent booster by Sravya Tadepalli for Prism
- RSV is surging. Here’s what to watch for and answers about treatment options by Vanessa Romo for NPR
- Building a Citywide Tenant Union in Kansas City by Andrew Willis Garcés for The Forge
Videos, Podcasts and Media
I’m trying to include more multimedia content within each Allyship Check-In, since I know not everyone enjoys articles like I do! Here’s what I engaged with this month:
Multimedia
- Watch Dove’s short series on the #RealCostofBeauty, over on YouTube
- Listen to the next episode of People over Plastic
- Watch this opinion video in NYT’s “Empty Classrooms, Abandoned Kids: Inside the Great Teacher Resignation” video

Getting Engaged
Petitions
Now that we spent the first part of this Allyship Check-In becoming informed, now it’s time to take action. Here’s a selection of petitions you can sign and make your voice heard.
Sign Your Name In Support of:
- I shared this petition before, but if you haven’t signed yet to support the CROWN act and end racial hair discrimination, please do!!
- Sign Your Name: Pause Student Loan Payments Until Debt is Actually Canceled
Take Action
On top of learning and signing petitions, I always want to include ways within this Allyship Check-In series to get even further engaged.
Find ways to deepen your involvement and support those groups, people and initiatives below already doing this work!
Get Engaged
- Use this guide to help plan how to protect yourself and others during election cycles
- Following the resources here, help pressure Biden to actually cancel the debt he campaigned on canceling
- Call your representatives and demand their support of the COVID-19 emergency funding request
Donate
As always, I like to highlight different organizations, movements and areas to support financially in each Allyship Check-in, if you’re able. Also, I decided to commit to $20 a month to a different organization, for as long as it’s feasibly possible for me.
This month, I donated $20 to the Harper Union Strike Fund to help support striking workers continue to stay on strike until their demands are met.
Support Financially
- Black Feminist Future: an organization that “strategiz[es] to advance and support movements led by and serving Black feminists, including reproductive justice, ending patriarchal violence, and defeating misogynoir.”
- Women Mobilizing to End the War: a “global coalition of women’s peace organizations calling on the United States, North Korea, South Korea, and China to end the Korean War, sign a peace agreement, and to include women in the peace processes.”
- Native American Rights Fund: a non-profit organization meant to “protect Native American rights, resources and lifeways.”
- Anti-Racism Daily (the ARD): support their daily newsletter, that has expanded to include video series, a podcast, a banned book club, courses, trainings and more, by donating so they can go another year!
- Landback: is “a movement that has existed for generations with a long legacy of organizing and sacrifice to get Indigenous Lands back into Indigenous hands”
- Donate to these funds to help support families and victims from the Colorado Springs Club Q Mass shooting, as organized by this Prism article by Lara Witt:
- The Colorado Healing Fund activated a fund to support victims of the Club Q tragedy
- Support for the Club Q Families and Survivors, organized by Faith Haug with LGBTQ-owned auto repair shop Good Judy Garage
- Victims of Club Q Colorado Springs Mass Shooting, organized by Greg Resha (Kyree Myst), a former Club Q employee

Further Reading
If you want to go deeper than articles or blog posts collected in this month’s Allyship Check-in, look no further! Check out the non-fiction below to learn more and dive deeper. Then, read, buy and promote the fiction books by BIPOC and queer authors–or, share your own recommendations in the comments.
- Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness by Da’shaun L. Harrison
- Refusing Compulsory Sexuality: A Black Asexual Lens on Our Sex-Obsessed Culture by Sherronda J Brown
- Article: “Decolonization is not a metaphor” by Eve Tuck and K Wayne Young
- Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
- The Surviving Sky by Kritika H. Rao
- Even Though I Knew the End by C.L. Polk
- Fire Becomes Her by Rosiee Thor
- Bloodmarked by Tracy Deonn
- We Deserve Monuments by Jas Hammonds
In Sum
Thank you for reading and engaging with this latest Allyship Check-In post! I hope you learned something new, deepened your knowledge about important issues and found different ways to get involved.
As we near the end of 2022, I hope we can find bright spots and ways to fight for–and support–each other. The world continues to be challenging and often dark. But together, we can do this.

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