There’s no excuse for white people to not be showing up for the Black Lives Matter movement right now. If until now you’ve been silent on social media about these issues or haven’t felt you could help in any way- now’s the time. If you can honestly reconcile doing nothing to help end racism right now that’s pretty terrifying…
If You Don’t Have Money to Donate (I get it, many folks are out of work or have reduced income during the pandemic or are just poor):
-Share links of places to donate and contribute to your social media platforms, you might not be able to contribute personally but someone in your circle may! Maybe someone you know will see how easy it is to kick in that $12 they’d have spent on a take out lunch to a bail fund or the NAACP. Here’s three easy links:
https://www.nationalcouncil.us/ or https://www.naacp.org/ or https://www.splcenter.org/
-Diversify your media consumption! Add people of color creators that mesh with your interests, I guarantee they’re out there- share their work. Add people of color who are making content educating others on these issues and share/spread their work. Read books by people of color etc etc. It’ll take some work to find people who’s work best suits your interests but it’s worth doing (I’ll do another post with a sea of links to poc creators I like too).
-Call your local police department and find out if they utilize body cameras while on duty. If they don’t write to the police chief, city, or local government representative and ask them to. It really doesn’t take much to send an email or letter, you don’t even have to pick up the phone.
-Attend a protest if you can! They’re happening worldwide!
-Put a sign in your apartment or house window about Black Lives Matter. It seems like a silly thing to do but showing public support can encourage others to do the same.
Obviously this is a very tiny list and this isn’t everything you can do by a looooong shot. I think the first stop should be to EDUCATE YOURSELF. There are so many creators helping to start conversations on racism and defunding the police system and you don’t have to pay to read their work online.
-Taeden
Gloomth & the Cult of Melancholy 