It’s been the elephant in my head since the murder of George Floyd. How to respond when I’m talking from a place of no understanding. How to empathise when I have no knowledge of how it feels to be Black in 2020. How to stop responding with a frankly fairly offensive “wow, that’s awful” but instead play a role in changing it. Showing solidarity is good, and posting the black squares is a powerful show of hands, but it’s not enough. The phrase “it’s not enough” is in itself not nearly bloody enough. I had always thought that food had the power to communicate across all boundaries, but that thought today, in this new reality, feels trite. So today I’ve been researching how to be more proactive. Below are my starting points, and they are exactly that, because it can feel too overwhelming to try and understand everything that has gone before this moment and how on earth this is still happening now. So please, take steps, even if they are small ones.
If you have the ability to do so, then Donate. https://minnesotafreedomfund.org or to the family themselves https://www.gofundme.com/f/georgefloyd
Some books to read : White Fragility by Robin Diangelo; Raising White Kids by Jennifer Harvey; The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander; No Place Like Home by Gary Younge; Why I’m no Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge; Me and White Supremacy by Layla Saad
Some accounts to follow @rachel.cargle @ava @austinchanning @das.penman @candicebraitewaite @munroeburgdorf
To Watch: https://www.channel4.com/programmes/angry-white-and-american
There are a lot of articles out there at the moment, but this is the one that spoke to me most if you have decided that (finally) it’s time to be more proactive. https://medium.com/equality-includes-you/what-white-people-can-do-for-racial-justice-f2d18b0e0234
I’ve got to admit I feel afraid to post this, because I am simply not qualified to speak with any experience. But I’m more afraid to do nothing, so please, take this as it’s intended – me sharing my starting point with you in the hope that it will be a jumping off point for someone else too.