Due to current events, and acts of injustice, it feels inappropriate to share a newsletter this week. Instead, I am including a list of resources that feel relevant and important. You won’t be wrong to start anywhere on this list, but I found Ta-Nehesi Coates We Were Eight Years in Power to be the most layered, consequential, and difficult examinations of institutional racism. It is a good place to start.
Racial injustice and inequality continue to have a devastating impact on the Black community. It is impossible to ignore as it pulls at the very seams of community and well-being. We have to honestly acknowledge the history and context from which these incidents have occurred if we are to ever make progress. Safety is not a negotiable condition. It will mean we have to face uncomfortable truths about ourselves and our institutions. There is no alternative. We need to get comfortable about being uncomfortable.
There are many ways to get involved; the only wrong action is inaction. And for many, including me, this is a great time to listen, educate yourself, and demonstrate real empathy. One of our core values at IX is “Support Each Other – It Matters.” To our Black colleagues, friends, and communities: You have my support and more.
Will Doherty
EVP, Global Marketplace Development
Index Exchange
National Organisations on Social Media to Follow
Articles to Read
- “America’s Racial Contract Is Killing Us”
- The Atlantic (Adam Serwer, Staff Writer)
- The 1619 Project (all the articles)
- The New York Times Magazine
- “The Intersectionality Wars”
- Vox (Jane Coaston, Senior Politics Reporter)
- Tips for Creating Effective White Caucus Groups
- Craig Elliott, PhD
- White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”
- Peggy McIntosh, Associate Director of the Wellesley Collage Center for Research on Women
- Who Gets to Be Afraid in America?”
- The Atlantic (Dr Ibram X. Kendi, Director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University)
Podcasts
- 1619 (New York Times)
- About Race
- Code Switch
- Intersectionality Matters! with Kimberlé Crenshaw
- Momentum: A Race Forward Podcast
- Pod For The Cause (The Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights)
- Pod Save the People (Crooked Media)
Books to Read
- We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy
- By: Ta-Nehesi Coates
- How To Be An Antiracist
- By: Dr Ibram X. Kendi
- Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race
- By: Renni Eddo-Lodge
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
- By: Maya Angelou
- Just Mercy
- By: Bryan Stevenson
- Girl, Woman, Other
- By: Bernadine Evaristo
- Redefining Realness
- By: Janet Mock
- White Teeth
- By Zadie Smith
- The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
- By: Michelle Alexander
- The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century
- By: Grace Lee Boggs
- When Affirmative Action Was White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America
- By: Ira Katznelson
- White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism
- By: Robin DiAngelo, PhD
Films and TV Series’ to Watch
- 13th (Ava DuVernay) — Netflix
- American Son (Kenny Leon) — Netflix
- Black Power Mixtape: 1967-1975 — Available to rent
- Clemency (Chinonye Chukwu) — Available to rent
- Dear White People (Justin Simien) — Netflix
- I Am Not Your Negro (James Baldwin doc) — Available to rent or on Kanopy
- Just Mercy (Destin Daniel Cretton) — Available to rent
- King In The Wilderness — HBO
- The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution — Available to rent
- The Hate U Give (George Tillman Jr.) — Hulu with Cinemax
- When They See Us (Ava DuVernay) — Netflix
Organisations
- George Floyd’s siblings Philonise and Bridgett are raising funds for funeral and burial expenses, as well as to support his daughter Gianna. Donate to their GoFundMe’s here and here.
- Fair Fight is an organisation led by Stacey Abrams that promotes fair elections and encourages voter participation. Their mission is to combat voter suppression of voters of colour and young voters. Donate here.
- The Black Visions Collective Movement and Legal Fund, a Black, trans and queer-led organisation, is helping lead the protests and advocating to defund the police in Minnesota. Donate here.
- Northstar Health Collective, a mutual aid group of organisers and street medics, is providing healthcare and other resources to activists and organisers on the ground. Donate here.
- Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en La Lucha, a Minneapolis worker’s centre, is taking donations of food and money to support organisers and helping pressure local government. Donate here.
- Reclaim the Block, a Minnesota org that lobbies for defunding the police and re-routing funds to affordable housing, health, violence prevention, civil right and renter protections. Donate here.
- The Twin Cities Recovery Project has been holding grief and trauma groups which are peer-run and connected to licensed therapists. To help fundraise for community support, donate here.
- National Assembly Against Racism (NAAR) is a UK-based organisation committed to keeping Black and minority men and women safe from racial and sexual abuse, donate here.