We all have a lot of work to do in the fight against systemic oppression, racism being one of the big systems of abuse and discrimination that is currently on everyone's minds, especially where police brutality against BIPOC (black indigenous people of color) communities is concerned. I have been posting some things on my Instagram, sharing MANY things from other people in my story there to amplify other voices, and I'm working on a video that will go up on my YouTube channel tonight (31 May 2020).
I wanted to put together a post here with links to some of the anti-racism resources for white people that I've been finding thanks to other people sharing them, so I can link people to all of these more easily and have them handy for my own future reference, as well as everyone else's. I will continue updating this occasionally as I collect more. Please share any more resources you have.
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Anti-Racism Resources for White People: bit.ly/ANTIRACISMRESOURCES
This document includes resources for parents to teach anti-racism to children, podcasts to listen to, movies or videos to watch, articles and books to read, social media of organizations to follow, and more. There is a LOT here and I recommend starting here and going through it a bit at a time.
One of the articles I found via the large compiled document above: "75 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice". #38 is decolonize your bookshelf, which is one thing I've been doing -- looking up all the authors whose books I own so I can see how many are white men, as opposed to women, POC, queer, trans*, gender non-conforming authors, and so on.
Also on Instagram, I have been learning a lot from Brittany Packnett Cunningham, Ericka Hart, Millenial Black, Layla F. Saad, Ijeoma Oluo (author of "So You Want to Talk About Race"), Raquel Willis, Giselle Buchanan, Munroe Bergdorf, Brandon Goodman, Alex Jenny, The Black History Lesson, and many others, and enjoying the photography of Kid Noble (Reginald Cunningham, spouse of Brittany who is linked above).
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A handful of books: Most of these are already listed in the document found in the first link in this post, but I wanted to specifically mention a few of the titles that my partner and I own and that I plan to read first since I already have access to them.
How To Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir by Patrisse Khan-Cullors, Asha Bandele, foreword by Angela Davis
White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo, PhD is also recommended on many of these lists, but I do want to note that it is written by a white woman. Black educators have been pointing out that her book has greatly surpassed anti-racism books by Black authors -- a white author is being listened to more than Black individuals themselves. So while it is on many lists, we should all look to learn from Black folx about their own experiences first, before we go to a white person teaching about racism.
Here is a larger list of anti-racism books that I was made aware of thanks to someone else sharing it, as well. Don't underestimate how much sharing resources/posts helps!
As for movies, I definitely second the recommendation from the above list of The Hate U Give. You might also appreciate the movie BlacKkKlansman (2018) directed by Spike Lee, and the CW show Black Lightning is fantastic. Probably the best of the DC shows, very relevant.
The Wellness of We - a FREE 8-day online practice discussing wellness, community care, "wellness beyond whiteness" and so on. I signed up for it in advance because a friend had shared it with me, but check out the site and you should still be able to gain access to each day's materials.
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Witchcraft/Paganism specific things:
If you are a Witch who is interested in activism, or an activist interested in Witchcraft, I also recommend David Salisbury's book Witchcraft Activism: A Toolkit for Magical Resistance. You can watch the review video I did when I read the book last year on my YouTube channel.
Sigil posts by Laura Tempest Zakroff on her blog, so you can read the full process and intention that went into building each sigil before using it. There are many specifically designed with activism and social justice issues in mind, such as the Sigil to Protect Protestors and many more. Please use with CREDIT to the artist and link people to the original blog post for it if you share them, or what you did with them, online.
A list of Anti-Racism resources for Pagans has been added to Lady Althaea's blog. You can submit additions to her list at the bottom of the page, as well.
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Again, I will keep adding resources that I've found helpful, some specifically Witchy related but probably mostly not. Just anti-racism in general. But that first link here, the document of Anti-Racism Resources, contains a TON of stuff just within that one document. I think I will be going through that for a while yet.
Black Lives Matter. Trans Lives Matter. Black Trans Lives Matter.
My feminism and my Witchcraft are, and must be, intersectional. I am not perfect, but I am committed to learning more about anti-racism, and how to do better for everyone concerning a variety of issues. When I mess up, as I'm sure we all do at times, it will NOT be for lack of trying.
I support BLM and all efforts to dismantle systemic oppression, racism, sexism, transphobia, homophobia, classism, ableism, xenophobia, and all other forms of oppression and injustice.
I believe that the personal is political and our politics are personal. I believe that magic(k) is about change, and if we didn't want change, we wouldn't do magick. Pagans and Witches have always been political, and our elders who came before us had to fight for our rights for us to get where we are today.
In the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, as well, our rights started with riots - the Stonewall Uprising. When people say "the first Pride was a RIOT", they mean it literally.
[Screenshot of a Tweet by George M Johnson reading, "A reminder to any queer person not understanding riots and looting. The Stonewall Uprising was 5 days of rioting, looting, and VIOLENT protests against the police. These RIOTS, led by Black & brown trans & queer folx were the catalyst for the reason we have LGBTQ rights today."]
Blessings~
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