Last Updated on August 24, 2020 by ThoughtsStained

Hello, lovelies.

I hope you’re hanging in there and staying healthy. At this point, that’s all you can do.

Since I really liked I how I wrote this before, I’m going to quote it again, in case this is your first time reading this type of “wrap-up”:

Like I mentioned before, I wanted to compile different resources and actions to post here once a month. Many of the resources below, I’ve either already read/watched/listen to or plan to. I’ll share petitions to sign and donation links (which, while I can’t donate to everything, due to my own financial situation, I’d like to continue sharing and hope to at least donate to one thing, once a month, if I can).

I realize this is a blog you may have followed to read my book reviews, my writing rants, my mental health oversharing or any other plethora of posts that I usually write, so having activism and allyship resources also being added to the mix might surprise you or feel “off-brand”. That says a lot more about myself and the lack of work I should have been doing before, but this is something I will continue doing, going forward. If that makes you want to unsubscribe, I want to ask yourself why. Perhaps it can help you start your own journey dismantling white privilege, if you are a white reader.

And 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.

Oh, and while I hope this doesn’t need to be said, let’s please keep the comments kind and constructive–though, please never hesitate to call me out if I’ve misstep, 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 Black 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.

Readings

• Block the Vote: Voter Suppression in 2020

  • “Suppression efforts range from the seemingly unobstructive, like voter ID laws and cuts to early voting, to mass purges of voter rolls and systemic disenfranchisement. And long before election cycles even begin, legislators can redraw district lines that determine the weight of your vote. Certain communities are particularly susceptible to suppression and in some cases, outright targeted — people of color, students, the elderly, and people with disabilities.

    Below, we’ve listed some of the most rampant methods of voter suppression across the country — and the advocacy and litigation efforts aimed at protecting our fundamental right to vote.”

• Explore the website End Adultification Bias and read stories about how adultification has harmed and stereotyped young black girls.
• Read about the Junk Terror Law happening in the Philippines right now

Videos and Podcasts

• Share and subscribe to the Therapy for Black Girls Podcast
• Listen to “Anger: The Black Woman’s Superpower” Podcast

Petitions to Sign

• Support New Orleans Sanitation Workers: This petition advocates of raising the minimum pay of New Orleans Sanitation Workers (working in a place where $26 per hour is the living wage to support a family of four) at least $15 an hour, instead of the $10.25, without benefits, include hazard pay and provide PPE equipment.
• Racism, not race, is killing Black, Brown and Indigenous people in our health care system: Discusses the actions we need to take (like passing laws in Congress and “transforming training requirements for health care officials for all health professionals to deliver anti-racist, culturally humble care rooted in human rights”) in order to protect BIPOC women from dying during or after pregnancy and childbirth.
• Demand Justice for Breonna Taylor: Her killers, Louisville Metro Police Department officers Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison, and Myles Cosgrove, are still walking free. Please don’t be silent and continue to fight for her justice.
• Demand Justice for Emmett Till: Emmett was kidnapped, tortured, lynched and killed 65 years ago and he’s never received justice. Please read this petition on ways you can help change that.
• Save the USPS: I can’t believe this is something we even need to fight over, but here we are.
• Demand DA Dave Young’s Resignation over the handling of Elijah McClain’s case: “Elijah McClain was a 23 year old vegetarian. He died after suffering a heart attack en route to hospital after being bludgeoned by the police, placed in a choke hold, and then forcefully injected with ketamine. His death was not an accident. If Dave Young cannot recognize that the actions of the police and fire department lead to the death of Elijah McClain then he is not fit to serve the people of Aurora.”
• Stop Shooting Our Children: Waycross Police Officer Jesse Shook and Lt. Scott Rowell shot at four black children in Waycross, Georgia this past weekend, after they were going home from a football game. Sign the petition to demand these officers are held accountable for these actions.
• Cancel Student Debt: “Canceling student debt in response to the Coronavirus crisis will help the 45 million people with student loans and stimulate the economy when it is needed most. It will allow borrowers to purchase the necessities their families depend on: food on their table, a roof over their head, and critical healthcare.”

Actions

• REGISTER TO VOTE
  • Fight against voter suppression efforts here, with the help of ACLU
• Follow Malana to learn more about Blackness and anti-Semitism
• Write to your Senators to:
  • Pass the Black Maternal Health Momnibus 
  • Protect our Voting Rights
  • Pass the Restaurants Act
• Call to demand Justice for Breonna Taylor
• Explore Beyond the Statement, a new website that tracks corporations who pledged or spoke about supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, yet haven’t actually made those changes. It not only highlights corporations, like Nike or McDonalds, and how they haven’t lived up to their promises, but it also gives you actions to do, like signing petitions!
• Check out The Adaway Group for training and resources to help guide your DEI discussions at the workplace!
• Consider buying a Social Justice postcard that you could mail to your senators or family members to remind them of the important work they should be doing to protect black lives.
• Share and support black therapists!
• Bookmark this Get Informed Carrd and pick at least one topic to educate yourself on in what’s going on in the world each month, if not each week.

Places to Donate

• Master List of over 147 places to donate: I’m going to continue always sharing this link, so that you (and myself) always have this master list to reference. However, I’m going to try and highlight a few different places each month, as well as other other locations I’ve found that aren’t on this list.
  • Donate to the “Helping the Essential Workers” campaign
  • Donate to the Louisville Community Bail Fund
  • Donate to support Black Emotional and Mental Health (BEAM)
  • Donate to Vote.org to help more Americans vote by mail
  • Donate to Colin Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights Campaign

Books

On Activism

• White Fatigue: Rethinking Resistance for Social Justice by Joseph E. Flynn Jr
• Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement by Angela Y. Davis
• Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Doby Jennifer L. Eberhardt

To Read For Fun

• The Rage of Dragons and The Fires of Vengeance by Evan Winter
• Earthsinger Chronicles by L. Penelope
• The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin

Thank you for taking the time to read through such a lengthy post. I hope some of these resources have been helpful for you! And, if you found something you enjoyed and learned something from, consider supporting that creator, whether it’s through sharing, donating to them, signing up for a mailing list, purchasing their works. It is important that we amplify and share Black voices, but also that we support them and pay them, especially when they are educating us about racism.

Cheers.