Listening to the news reports of the inhumane treatment of George Floyd and the response of people of all ages, colors, and genders, the resounding message from our black brothers and sisters is, “We cannot do this alone!” It is time for white America to respond to make change.
So what can we do?
We are including a link to Corinne Shutack’s 75 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice. When you click on this link, you will find enough resources to take you on a ride of self-discovery and calls to action that you can do now!
We are pulling some of them out to list here to give you a start. We have abbreviated some, letting you find them in the list by their number, provided below. Be sure to click on the links!
Self-Discovery
(46) Seek out a diverse group of friends for you. Practice real friendship and intimacy by listening when people of color talk about their experiences and their perspectives. They’re speaking about their pain.
(39) Listen without ego and defensiveness to people of color. Truly listen. Don’t scroll past articles written by people of color—read them.
(45) Seek out a diverse group of friends for your kids.
(5) If you have a friend who is an educator, share the video of Neil deGrasse Tyson speaking about his experience as a black student telling people he wanted to be a scientist and astrophysicist.
(3) More and more stories of black folks encountering racism are being documented and shared through social media—whether it’s at a hotel, with the police, in a coffee shop, at a school, or elsewhere. When you see such a post, call the responsible organization, company, or institution involved to convey how upset you are. Then share the post along with the institution’s contact information, spreading the word about what happened and encouraging others to contact the institution as well. Whether the company initiated the event or failed to protect a person of color during an onslaught by a third party, they need to hear from us.
Actions That Contribute to Change
(43) Find out how slavery, the Civil War, and the Jim Crow era are being taught in your local school. Advocate that history be taught correctly and certain parts are not skipped over or barely mentioned. Advocate that many voices be used in the study of history. Are explorers, scientists, politicians, etc., who are POCs (persons of color) discussed? Are male and female authors who are POCs on reading lists? Are Japanese internment camps being discussed? Is history explained correctly in history books?
(4) If you have a friend who is an educator, buy your friend books that feature POCs as protagonists and heroes, no matter the racial makeup of the students your friend teaches. A few good lists are here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. The racial makeup of students doesn’t matter—kids of every race and ethnicity need to know American history and be exposed to people from different races, religions, and countries.
(2) Google whether your city or town currently employs evidence-based police de-escalation training. The racial makeup of your town doesn’t matter; this practice needs to be standard everywhere. Write to your city or town government representative and police chief and advocate for it. Multiply your voice by soliciting others to advocate as well, writing on social media about it, contributing op-eds to your local news source, etc.
(16) Call or write to your state legislators and governor to support statewide criminal justice reform, including reducing mandatory minimum sentences, reducing sentences for nonviolent drug crimes, passing “safety valve” laws to allow judges to depart from the mandatory minimum sentence under certain conditions, passing alternatives to incarceration, etc. Study after study shows that racism fuels racial disparities in imprisonment, and most of the U.S. prison population are being held in state or local jails or in prison.
(24) Call or write to state legislators, federal legislators, and your governor to end solitary confinement in excess of fifteen days. It is considered torture by the United Nations, and it is used more frequently on black and Hispanic prisoners. For more information on solitary confinement, two good overviews can be found here and here.
And from the LWVC
Now, more than ever, we must confront the history of racial oppression behind our state’s felony disenfranchisement laws. The Free the Vote Act will roll back a form of voter suppression currently facing black and brown Californians and will signal to all Californians that their voices matter. Take action: Tell your senator to vote YES on ACA 6.
On August 19, 2019, Governor Newsom signed AB 392 into California law. Write to your city council and police department demanding implementation of this law with new training and policy on the use of deadly force.
Finally: Vote, Vote, Vote, Vote, VOTE!
Remember, our primary power to make change is to VOTE. We need to make sure that all elected to office are committed to social justice. Call your friends and ask them if they are registered to vote. Have they asked their siblings, relatives, neighbors, and acquaintances? Have you? Follow up with reminders as the November election approaches (before the first early voting day if possible) to encourage them to vote, and not to delay.
We have great resources on our LWV-PA website, including our Resource Toolbox. Check it out under the “Take Action” tab. The Toolbox is a collection of websites from the League of Women Voters, L.A. County, California, and national websites, and maps that show demographic and electoral information.. These sites are designed to help voters do their research via many different databases in order to be well informed about their vote. Now it’s easier and more interesting than ever, so dive in! And use the Find Your Elected Officials link to contact elected officials at all levels.
—Dorothy L. Keane and Laurie Barlow
