There’s no such thing as sitting on the fence and being neutral in the face of oppression. If you aren’t actively opposing it, then you are supporting it.
I wrote a few years ago about privilege, and specifically my white privilege. That might be a good post for you to start tackling your privilege (as most of my audience is white women) and white fragility.
If you feel like you aren’t being the right kind of ally, or that you aren’t doing the right thing, or perhaps you are feeling shame or guilt about your heritage or actions then that’s good. It means that you’re starting to question your beliefs. We all make missteps when we start tackling our privilege. And the fact that we even have the space to emotionally rangle with our own privilege is a privilege in and of itself. But it’s better to make mistakes than to not challenge it at all.
Maybe you don’t know where to start? Luckily a lot of other people (specifically, a lot of people of colour) have put in that hard work for you.
To Read:
+White Fragility: Why It’s so Hard to Talk to White People About Racism by Robin DiAngelo
+ Me and White Supremacy: How to Recognise Your Privilege, Combat Racism and Change the World by Layla Saad
+ Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge (I can’t recommend this highly enough. I firmly believe it should be on the GCSE English curriculum)
+ Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
+ Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendall
+ I am Not Your Baby Mother by Candice Brathwaite
+ Queenie by Candice Carly-Williams
+ The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (A Year 7 pupil I tutor is currently reading this after my recommendation and he’s finding it grade level appropriate comprehension wise.)
+ Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
+ So You Want To Talk About Race by Ijeoma Ofuo
+ Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman (This is studied in a lot of schools now. If your kids have read it, but you haven’t – read it!)
+ They Can’t Kill Us All: The Story of Black Lives Matter by Wesley Lowery
+ How To Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
+ Biased by Dr. Jennifer Eberhardt
+ The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
+ An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
+ Becoming by Michelle Obama
+ The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks
To Watch:
The Hate U Give
13th
American Son
Dear White People
If Beale Street Could Talk
When They See Us
Why Color Blindness Will NOT End Racism | Decoded | MTV News
Watch this video by Zoe Amira (How to financially help BLM with NO MONEY/leaving your house (Invest in the future for FREE)) Don’t skip the ads. Then continue to let it run again in the background whilst you are doing other work. 100% of the ad proceeds are being donated.
Act:
Sign petitions:
Petition to Defund the police
Colour of Change petition to charge all officers involved with George Floyds murder be charged with murder
Change.org petition for jusitce for George Floyd
Black Lives Matter, two petitions you can sign to help black communities dealing with coronavirus and demanding racial data.
Black Lives Matter petition to defund the police
Justice for Ahmaud Arbery
Justice for Belly Mujinga
Suspend UK export of tear gas, rubber bullets and riot shields to USA
Protest
Email and call your congressman/senators/MPs
Donate:
National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls (USA)
NAACP (USA)
Southern Poverty Law Center (USA)
Black Youth Project 100 (USA)
Color of Change (USA)
The Sentencing Project (USA)
Families against Mandatory Minimums (USA)
A New Way of Life (USA)
Equal Justice Initiative (USA)
Dream Defenders (USA)
Bail Project (USA)
Exist Loudly Fund (UK)
Black Minds Matter (UK)
Black Lives Matter UK
Show Racism The Red Card (UK)
Runnymede (UK)
The Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust (UK)
Stand Up To Racism (UK)
Southall Black Sisters (UK)
SARI (UK)
Here are some more ideas:
+ Teachers Must Hold Themselves Accountable for Dismantling Racial Oppression
+ Anti-racism resources for white people (via Sarah Sophie Flicker and Alyssa Klein)
+75 things white people can do for racial injustice (via Medium)
+ Ways to help (via Black Lives Matter)
+ “The Case for Reparations” by Ta-Nehisi Coates (from The Atlantic, 2014)
+ IG: George Floyd: How can I help from the UK? (via Das Penman)
+ IG: 10 steps to non-optical allyship (via Mireille Harper)
+IG: Transform Allyship into Action: A Toolkit for Non-Black People (via Social Justice in Medicine Coalition at USC)
+ Twitter Thread: UK-based charities, organisations and platforms whose work aims to eradicate racial injustice (Via Black Ballad)
+ Twitter Thread: Advice for companies from Sheree Atcheson, Monzo’s Head of Diversity and Inclusion (Via Sheree Atcheson)
I’ve been thinking about what I can do in my personal life (other than all the above), having the conversations with friends and family and using my platform and it’s this: a lot of fellow teachers have “10 minutes” of quiet reading at the beginning of English (and other) lessons. Inevitably, at least 4 kids forget their books. Some finish their books in that time. Whatever the reason, I know that most teachers have a miscellaneous box of books at the front of their class for that reason.
If we can’t change the curriculum (though we can have some sway over the class reader and sign curriculum petitions), we do have control over what is available in our classrooms and also what we read ourselves read. Make sure you are including a diverse range of literature on offer in your class. Keep a poster up in your room about what you are reading that week. Make sure your own picks are diverse.
It’s the bare minimum that we can do.
If you have any charities, petitions or other work that you can recommend please share it in the comments for myself and others.
