Novels, essay collections, non-fiction, memoirs, biography, history. There are endless forms available to educate yourself.
No one is going to become an expert overnight and no one is asking for that. But this issue is more than a night’s work. So read up if you can – whichever form draws you most.
I’m starting with The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin and The Fire This Time by Jesmyn Ward because these are what drew me.
Have Black Lives Ever Mattered? by Mumia Abu-Jamal
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
Blindspot by Mahzarin R. Banaji & Anthony G. Greenwald
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
Tears We Cannot Stop by Michael Eric Dyson
Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge
Good Talk by Mira Jacob
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Ibram X. Kendi
When They Call You A Terrorist by Patrisse Khan-Cullors & Asha Bandele
Mindful of Race by Ruth King
Citizen by Claudia Rankine
The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein
Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
America’s Original Sin by Jim Wallis
The Fire This Time by Jesmyn Ward
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin
Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
SIGN
We Can’t Breathe – Minneapolis-based petition calling for the immediate arrest and second degree murder charge of all four officers involved in George Floyd’s murder
NAACP petition #WeAreDoneDying – if you are outside the US and want to sign, you need to enter a US postcode – I used 11201 Brooklyn
Justice for George Floyd via Change.org
Justice for Breonna Taylor via Change.org. Taylor was fatally shot two months ago by LMPD police officers who stormed into her home whilst serving a ‘no-knock’ warrant, at the wrong address, with the individuals at the center of the investigation already in police custody.
Justice for Ahmaud Arbery via Change.org. In February Ahmaud Arbery was pursued and fatally shot by Travis McMichael and his father Greg McMichael, under the false pretext of suspecting Arbery after witnessing a burglary in Satilla Shores of Glynn County. No one has the right to pursue, attack and kill an unarmed, non-threatening individual. Arbery was racially profiled.
^^This case-specific list could go on. It cannot be left to BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) people and communities to organise and speak every time this happens.
DONATE
National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP)
#BlackLivesMatter #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd #ICantBreathe