I’d like to start by saying, I hope you’re all safe and healthy. Our country has gone from one devastating crisis to another, faster than any of us could possibly process. And throughout it all, if you’re anything like me, you’ve probably found yourself with a recurring sense of helplessness. What can you do when doctors are short on protective gear? What can you do when there’s a shortage of hospital beds? And what can you do when Minneapolis Police Officer, Michael Chauvin, crushes his knee into the neck a Black civilian named George Floyd for 8 minutes straight as he pleads “I can’t breathe […] Mama. Mama. […] Don’t kill me.” And this on the heels of the unprovoked lynching of Ahmaud Arbery.
Step 1
It might not be much, but there are a couple things we can do. First, we can educate ourselves on the problem. Before we condemn the violence that has broken out from some of the George Floyd protests, we can do our best to understand its origins. So below is a reading list I’ve compiled that might help us understand the current climate a bit better.
- How to Be an Antiracist – a 2019 best-seller with a self-explanatory title, written by Guggenheim Fellow, Ibram X. Kendi
- Well-Read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves – a 2017 anthology of black feminist literature, highlighting “the importance of recognizing ourselves in literature,” curated by Glory Edim – the founder the Brooklyn-based book club Well-Read Black Girl
- Fire This Time – published in 1997, this book examines the 1965 Watts Uprising and the tremendous impact it’s had on American Social Justice, written by Gerald Horne
- Who Do You Serve, Who Do of You Protect? – examining the extent and impact of police violence, this 2016 title is available as a free ebook download from the Publisher, Haymarket Books, until June 5th, edited by Joe Macaré, Maya Schenwar, and Alana Yu-lan Price
- Racism Without Racists – released in its 5th edition in 2017, this title helps address issues of institutional racism, written by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva
To see additional recommendations, you can checkout out these reading lists posted by The New York Times, Buzzfeed, Haymarket Books, and the WNBA Readers Against Racism Shop.
Step 2
What can we do beyond educating ourselves? We can take collective action. One of the best ways to do this right now is by contributing to the charities and organizations actively fighting for the justice we all deserve. Below are a few recommendations:
- Black Lives Matter
- Brooklyn Bail Fund
- The Know Your Rights Legal Defense Fund
- NAACP
- Communities United Against Police Brutality
If you’re a WNBA-NYC member and decide to donate to one of these charities (or any other relevant 501c3 organization), please forward your receipt to blog@wnba-nyc.org by Friday, June 5th, I’d like to personally match as many donations as I can. My employer will then match my donation, so your one contribution will be tripled. And I know many other companies are also matching employee donations right now, so if you’d like to maximize your contribution, please check to see if yours is one of them.
Will you stand with us?
Thank you for this thoughtful post, Rina!