I am so hopeful and humbled by the many thoughtful responses to my last post. In that post, I promised to follow up by providing my allies of all races some tools and strategies in the fight against racism. So....here are some concrete things you can do right now to fight racism.
1. Educate yourself about systemic racism then educate your children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews. Systemic racism needs to be more than a buzzword you hear on the news. To fight racism we must have a very clear understanding of how systemic racism works in society to benefit the white majority at the expense of everyone else, and particularly black people. Here are some resources of various lengths and formats to start off:
Books
1. The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
2. How to Be Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi
3. White Fragility by Robin Diangelo
4. So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
5. White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide by Carol Anderson
6. Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive
7. History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi
8. A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn
9. The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley and Malcolm X
10. The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein
The Truth About the Confederacy in the United States (Full Version)
How Southern Socialites Rewrote Civil War history
The Segregation Myth
Terror Lynching in America
Slavery to Mass Incarceration
Black Wall Street – Full Documentary
When White Supremacists Overthrew a Government
13th
The Myth of Black Criminality
2018 - Inside the Memorial to Victims of Lynching
Ex-Slaves Talk About Slavery - Including one of Thomas Jefferson’s slaves (Recordings)
A lynching memorial remembers the forgotten
Interview with Ex-Slave Aunt Harriet Smith Part 1
Last Slave Ship Survivor Interview from the 1930's
Slavery after the Emancipation Proclamation
The Black Codes & The Great Migration
Jim Crow and America's Racism Explained
Articles and Web Resources
Slave Patrols: An Early Form of American Policing
A Brief History of Slavery and the Origins of American Policing
Criminal Justice Fact Sheet
Juneteenth' Marks Day Slaves In Texas Were Told They Were Free
Defunding Police Departments
2. Form genuine friendships with people of other races. Ending systemic racism is not just about changing policies or passing laws, however important those things are. If all it took were policies and laws, we wouldn't still be where we are today, 157 years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation and 56 years since the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Real and lasting change is about changing hearts and minds. Good places to start building interracial friendships include neighbors, coworkers, sports teams, book clubs, volunteer organizations, places of worship, etc. If those aren't feasible for whatever reason, then try "
meetup.com." Meetup is a web site that allows people to connect with other people who have the same interests. For example, I belong to several board game Meetup groups but there are groups for just about every interest under the sun and many of these groups are quite diverse.
3. Use your economic power to promote change. Don't patronize businesses that have a history of perpetuating or tolerating racism. Expect from the businesses you frequent, prompt and effective responses to incidents of profiling or discriminatory behavior. On the other hand, help to return wealth to the black community by supporting black professionals and black owned businesses. Due to a lack of awareness, proximity, trust, and other reasons, black owned businesses and professionals can have difficulty attracting a diverse clientele. So, when searching for a new math tutor for your kids, primary care clinic, lawn care service or psychologist, give a black professional or business owner a chance to earn your business and help counteract some of the economic impact of systemic racism. Here are two resources to start:
SBO
Black Owned Etsy Shops
The above resources are only a drop in the bucket but they are enough to get you started. Please feel free to add more in the comments!