The recent events have left me thinking of
“how can I help?"
“what should I be doing?”
…and I came to the conclusion that one of the most important things we can all do right now is to take some time to listen and absorb the stories and messages coming from the Black community.
Donate if you can, but most importantly, LISTEN, LEARN and UNDERSTAND. Don't be afraid to make mistakes, but when you do them, apologize. Stop undermining people's feelings. I admit that I have been guilty of telling people something to the effect of "I'm not racist, I'm a minority too", which I've just come to realize is the wrong thing to say, and for that, I apologize.
I have a long journey ahead of me, but I'd like to think that this path will make me a better ally. As Ibram X. Kendi mentions in his book How to be an AntiRacist:
“The good news is that racist and antiracist are not fixed identities. We can be a racist one minute and an antiracist the next. What we say about race, what we do about race, in each moment, determines what -- not who -- we are.”
There are a lot of resources out there, and it's up to us to do the work, so here's a list that has been helping me better myself in this process:
- Self-educate with audiobooks about racism and antiracism, and amplify Black voices. Libro.fm has curated a playlist of “How to Be an Antiracist”. https://libro.fm/playlists/required-reading
- The audiobook version of Ibram X. Kendi’s Stamped from the Beginning is now available for free on Spotify.
- The NY Times has put together a list of children’s books that can help explain racism and protests to your kids. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/02/parenting/kids-books-racism-protest.html
- The book White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo is sold out right now, but you can listen to her chat with Jonathan Capehart on his podcast, Cape Up: https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/cape-up/the-author-of-white-fragility-doesnt-think-most-white-people-care-about-racial-injustice/
- Buy, read and promote the fiction books by POC. Nic Stone, Jason Reynolds, Kiley Reid, N.K. Jemisin, Tomi Adeyemi, Angie Thomas and Uzodinma Iweala, just to name a few.
- Be more selective of the companies you choose to support on social media. Several #Bookstagrammers have dropped their support of BookOutlet due to their comments on #BlackLivesMatters movement.
Finally, the 2 images on this blog post are just some of the books that my #bookstagram friends and I are reading this week...
"I want to live in a world where no man’s life is valued more or less than another’s. I have been reading recommended works of Black authors and have joined community readalongs to listen, to learn, unpack my privilege, to hold myself accountable in supporting change." - Nikki @saturday_nite_reader
Please drop your suggestions and any other resources to add to my list in the comments section below.
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