RESOURCES ON WAYS TO HELP THE BLACK LIVES MATTER MOVEMENT
includes educational materials on black history, structural racism, effective allyship, and ways to donate without any money
the atrocities and injustices black americans have faced for centuries by the very nation their ancestors built has gone on for far too long. it has been proven time and time again america is indifferent to the flagrant abuse and murder of african-americans by the system society told us growing up is meant to protect the people. its abundantly clear that is a lie.
as i am writing this on june 6th 2020, 12 days after the death of george floyd, all 50 states and over 580 american cities have held protests against racism and police brutality. the whole country is crying out towards their injustice and america is long overdue for deep societal change. but that is not all.
in addition to the u.s. 19 other countries so far have joined and held protests against the systemic racism and police brutality perpetuated by their own governments. from argentina to australia, canada to brazil, mexico to japan, this list goes on. this is NOT an american only issue. police brutality is worldwide. globalized colorism and racism is prevalent and real. to quote andré 3000, “across cultures darker people suffer the most, why?”
i am speaking as an asian-american. and im also saying this as a nonblack person. george floyd was murdered directly by derek chauvin but 3 other officers aided in his murder, including an asian-american man named tou thao. he stood by doing nothing to help while a white man murdered a black person. a horrific representation of the culmination of antiblackness in asian-american communities. its not just white people. we are complicit to such racism as well. we must start with ourselves. to terminate structural racism we must eradicate it at the root so it may never reach such a scale ever again. in america, and many other countries, every nonblack person is complicit in the oppression of black people. we must work to undo the anti-blackness ingrained in us and our own people. we have to hold them accountable for anti-black racism before it grows and one our own is complicit to another racist murder of a black person. no matter how much it makes us uncomfortable and no matter who you might upset.
we cannot look away. we must immediately fight for change. a few convictions will not be enough. “reforming” the police will not be enough. a few new laws will not be enough. not until every black person brutalized and murdered by the hands of police get justice, and not until we ensure that this will never ever happen again. this problem is deep, and we all must work intra and interpersonally to solve it. and if you’re not speaking out, if you’re choosing to be quiet, you are part of the problem.
when we look at history often we’re appalled and shake our heads at the atrocities committed by society. why did people do that? why did people allow that? why did it go on for so long? it’s because people stayed silent and didn’t do anything to stop it. in oppression, there is no neutrality. if you stand by and say you don’t pick a side you are picking the side of the oppressor, because you’re allowing oppression to happen. in the era of slavery, would you say you would have advocated for abolition? or would you have turned a blind eye and let it go on? now look at the reality of our world today and ask yourself what side of history you’re going to be on, right here, right now. because this is a global movement. and history is in the making.
in the words of my friend @corpsentry: the world is at its tipping point. its up to us which way it falls
