Last Updated on November 23, 2020 by ThoughtsStained

Hello, lovelies.

I hope you’re hanging in there and staying healthy. I hope you’ve made plans to stay home during Thanksgiving, so we can work to give our hospitals a break and stop passing this virus around. I hope you’ve not lost the feeling of hope the election gave you, with an end to the Trump administration. Yet, I hope you also didn’t take that change as a sign of inaction. Our work is more important now than ever.

This month, of course, I’m sharing 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, 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.

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

• What Wealthy People Do is Rig the Discourse with Anand Giridharadas by Christopher Petrella from The Guardian
• Defunding The Police Can Achieve ‘Real Accountability And Justice,’ Black Lives Matter Co-Founder Says by Tonya Mosley from wbur
• The Role Publishing Plays in the Commodification of Black Pain by L.L. McKinney

Videos and Podcasts

**Didn’t watch anything this month; will try to do better next month!**

Petitions to Sign

• Sign a petition to focus on expanding the courts.
• Sign to stop Pervis Payne’s execution until DNA testing has been conducted to prove his innocence.
• Sign to elect presidents by popular vote, abolishing the electoral college.
• Sign to demand that Amy Coney Barrett recluse herself if the election goes to the supreme court.
• Sign to demand no more corporate lobbyist in administration.
• Sign to demand that a COVID-19 vaccine is free for all.
• Sign to demand the Senate actually focus on COVID-19 relief and management, for once.

Actions

• Explore ways to volunteer or donate to help flip the senate.
• Write to your senators to ensure that every vote counts.
• Write to your senators to demand the abolishment of the electoral college to allow the president to be elected by popular vote.
• Share your student debt story with President-Elect Joe Biden and let him know why erasing as much student debt as possible will help so many American lives and families.
• Add your name to help immigrants through progressive actions with Biden’s presidency!
• Volunteer for Protest Access to help provide captioning, transcription and visual descriptions as requested by online disabled communities, to help support accessibility while fighting for justice through anti-racist movements.
• Tell your Congressperson to support the BREATHE Act.
• Support the Black and Missing Foundation, which brings awareness about missing people of color.
• Learn about racial trauma.

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 Fair Fight campaign to end voter suppression, organized by the legendary Stacey Abrams
  • Donate to the Black Voters Matter Fund
  • Make donations to the Ford Fellows Fund or the Mellon Mayes Undergraduate Fellowship Program to help encourage and support more diversity in academia.
  • Donate to the Mutual Aid Network (you can even find one in your state!).
  • Donate to the National Black Disability Coalition.
  • Donate to support typhoon relief in the Philippines.
  • Donate to your local food bank.

Books

On Activism

• The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart by Alicia Garza
• New Era of Public Safety: An Advocacy Toolkit for Fair, Safe and Effective Community Policing by Lynda Garcia and The Education Fund

To Read For Fun

• The Unbroken by C.L. Clark (Preorder!!)
• Work for It by Talia Hibbert
• Rebel Sisters by Tochi Onyebuchi

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.