These were almost the last words spoken by Martin Luther King Jr. before he was assassinated. A single bullet attempted to extinguish his vision and light. Today, the torch has been passed to every single one of us. We must now carry on MLK’s message and bend our society towards equity. Open up that empathetic chip in your DNA. Take action and shine your light on a new world of humankind.
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Examine Your Bias
Set aside time to learn about your implicit biases. Taking a free assessment such as one through Project Implicit helps begin the process of self-reflection.
Show Up for Racial Justice
Join Standing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ). White support of racism is one of the biggest things standing in the way of dismantling racism. SURJ intentionally focuses on organizing white people leveraging its network of over 120 chapters and characterizing itself as a “home for white people working for racial justice.”
Turn your anger into action
Any one of these organizations working on social justice and racial equity need your volunteerism, donations, and support.
Advancement Project National Office
National Coalition on Black Civic Participation
Intersectional Environmentalist
American Civil Liberties Union
International Rescue Committee
Hate speech incites violence and undermines social cohesion and tolerance. The United Nations invites us to do something about it with the #NoToHate Campaign.
MLK: In His Own Words
We all have heard of King’s I Have A Dream, but there are others that continue to inspire millions around the world. Time has gathered them and shared the full-text links to each.
Understanding Racial Injustice
Modern education systems continue to uphold segregation: Still Separate, Still Unequal: Teaching about School Segregation and Educational Inequality (New York Times)
Race often determines the quality of healthcare one may receive: A shocking look at racial health inequality – podcasts of the week (The Guardian)
Not everyone breathes the same air, and race remains an important determinant: People of color more exposed than whites to air pollution (AP)
COVID-19 only emphasized the existing inequities that our society has yet to resolve: COVID-19 pandemic highlights longstanding health inequities in U.S. (Harvard School of Public Health)
Mass incarceration continues to deeply upend the Black family. Explore these details in The Atlantic’s article, The Black Family in The Age of Mass Incarceration.
Podcasts
Cornell University’s College of Arts & Science’s Segregation Education explores inequity in our education system.
Tough answers require asking the tough questions. Dive into fearless conversations about race with NPR’s Code Switch.
Documentaries
Race continues to be a factor in who receives adequate healthcare and who doesn’t. Unnatural Causes explores why this happens.
Decades have passed since Brown v. Board of Education, yet Teach Us All reminds us of the inequities still present in our society.
Voting is the bedrock of our democracy, but sweeping efforts are underway to undermine this intuition. Explore more in Whose Vote Counts, Explained.
The documentary 13TH takes us on a journey on what we have and have not achieved since the passage of the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery.
Few may recognize the name, but Pauli Murray was one of the architects of the civil rights movement for Blacks and women. Honor their work and stream My Name Is Pauli Murray.
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TEDx Talks
Hear from the founders of Black Lives Matter, the decentralized organization that sparked conversations about race and injustice in communities all around America…and the globe.
Think twice before using the term “color blind.” Mellody Hobson explains in “Color blind or color brave?” how to have thoughtful conversations about race in America.
Racism is not only a burden on the backs of people of color, but also a heavy burden on our economy. “It costs us so much to remain divided,” Heather McGhee explains in her TEDx.
In-Depth Research Into Racial Inequity
Explore The Brennan Center’s The History of Mass Incarceration for a deep analysis of this important issue.
Are you a visual learner? Check out Vox’s mass incarceration in America, explained in 22 maps and charts.
History.com provides context about voting rights with Voting Rights Milestones in America: A Timeline.
For a modern-day take on voting rights, review BBC’s Voting rights: How the battle is unfolding across the US.
Eye-Opening Books
Understand why saying “I’m colorblind” may be problematic in Michelle Alexander’s book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.
Jonathan Kozol reveals that we’re not setting our children up for success in his enlightening, heart-wrenching book, Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools.
Begin to unravel America’s tangled history with racism in Ibram X. Kendi’s, Stamped From the Beginning, The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America.
Open Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility, Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism with a willingness to learn and be challenged and you’ll walk away with many practical tools.
Books for Kids
A Kids Book About Racism by Jelani Memory introduces young children to a difficult topic.
In Ruby Bridges Goes to School: My True Story, the author herself retells her role in school desegregation in Louisiana.
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas examines police brutality and the psychological impact it can have on Black lives.
Resources for Teachers
From race and racism, bias and discrimination, to identity and culture, the Anti-Defamation League has curated a library of lesson plans for teachers of all grades.
Truth, justice, activism, healing and reconciliation are only a handful of the potential outcomes of this lesson plan on Bringing Black Lives Matter into the Classroom.
Children’s books, unfortunately, can be full of bias. This helpful tool can be used to analyze the books in your classroom and school libraries.
Progress We’ve Made
Opening books will open minds. The New York Times bestseller list one week was almost entirely comprised of books about race and white privilege. (The Business Insider)
After pleas from academics, Merriam-Webster updated the definition of Racism to include systemic oppression. (BBC)
Acknowledging the symbol of the Confederate flag as a symbol of trauma and oppression, NASCAR bans Confederate flags at all races, events. (CNN)
Communities are examining exactly what are we honoring in each statute, and toppling statues is a first step toward ending Confederate myths. (National Geographic)
As government weighs studying reparations, some cities are already taking action, and if achieved this would only begin to address the inequities in our society. (The Denver Channel)
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Credits
Image Credits: NASA – James Webb Telescope
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The work of racial justice always starts within ourselves, first. We must constantly question our beliefs, ideas, and assumptions. That also takes a willingness to be wrong and a willingness to be in vulnerable conversation with ourselves and others, even strangers. It’s tough work, but we must trudge forward for the sake of kindness, peace, and community.
Transform your passion into action.
