Dear America, Where Have We Gotten In The Four Months Since George Floyd’s Death?

Enough is enough! I am fed up with what I have been seeing recently and it has been keeping me up at night. After only one of the officers was charged in the death of Breonna Taylor and was not even charged for the shots that he fired at her, I am angry. This is not the America that we deserve. This is an America that is twisting justice and is only giving it to those who have held power for so many years. This needs to stop. We all need to work together and begin to act now. We have made great strides since May but clearly we have not done enough yet. So, we need to keep pushing! Here are some resources as well as programs you can look into to become better allies for justice and Black Americans.

First and foremost, my thoughts are with the family and friends of Breonna Taylor during this time and I really hope that they get the justice they deserve. It is really not right that they had to wait this long to have the grand jury meet and then still have no officers get charged. It is just a shame and shows how broken our justice system is in America.

1. The Ally Nudge: The Ally Nudge is a month long activism program that gives you information about how to become an ally to the Black Lives Matter Movement and also gives you action prompts to help get involved. I just completed this program and it was super helpful for me to learn about how to become an ally to Black Americans. The action prompts that they gave me were sometimes difficult but they challenged me to step out of my comfort zone and to really work to become an ally. What I liked about this program was that they did not bombard you with a bunch of useless information that you would never use. The Ally Nudge only sends texts on two days a week (Monday and Thursday) and at two times on each of those days (8:00 am and 6:00 pm) so that you do not feel overwhelmed. From learning about how to be an ally to learning about how the history we are taught based on where we live leads to racism to learning about how hard it is for Black Americans who have the same exact qualifications as whites to be employed, this program goes through it all. I highly highly recommend it to anyone looking to become an ally and looking for a small way to contribute to a big movement.

Here is my personal Join Code to join the Ally Nudge– it costs $5 to signup. —- http://nudgetext.com/r/pX0gXi/ally

2. Reading Books About The Civil Rights Movement, Black Heroes And The Racism That Exists: Right now, there are many different book out about our past as a society and how we have dealt with race as well as how our society is still racist today. Here are a few book that are worth checking out:

• Lies My Teacher Told Me By James Loewen: I just purchased this book myself as it was recommended to me through the Ally Nudge and I am really looking forward to reading it. Right now depending on what state you live in, you are taught a history that is not accurate and that fails to fully explain our racist past and present. This book is designed to uncover the lies we have been taught in school about our history and to set the record straight so that we can move forward.

• Walking With The Wind: A Memoir Of The Movement By John Lewis And Mike D’Orso: This book originally published in 1998 is designed to tell the story of John Lewis, one of the biggest fighters for equality in America. This Memoir details what life was like for John Lewis and how he was able to continue to fight for change despite the many obstacles he faced.

• So You Want To Talk About Race By Ijeoma Oluo: In this book, the author asks questions about race and race relations in America and then proceeds to talk about the best way to handle a certain situation. This story is designed to showcases how we can talk about race in a productive way and try to become better allies to the Black community.
• Podcast: 1619: This podcast from the New York Times is broken up into multiple episodes and analyzes how our history in America with Slavery has sparked where we are today and our race relations. The name 1619 is used because that is the first year that slaves were beginning to be transported from Africa to the Americas and beyond.

3. Donating To Organizations That Support The Cause Of Equal Justice: If you do not have time to volunteer or protest, then donating is a great way to get involved. By donating, you are allowing organizations to continue the fight for equality and justice for all. There are many ways to donate. For one, you can simply go to the website of an organization that supports Black Lives Matter and do it through there. You can also set up your Amazon account to donate to a certain organization when you buy products. To do this, go to AmazonSmile.com and then add the organization that you want to donate to. My Amazon Smile is set up to donate to the Equal Justice Initiative but there are plenty more organizations you can support as well. The one downside to the program is that you have to go to the Amazon Smile site directly or else the donations will not work. With that being said, here are some organizations that are worth donating to:

• The Equal Justice Initiative: The Equal Justice Initiative is based in Alabama and works to combat injustices in America’s justice and prison systems. It achieves these goals through education at their Museum and Memorial in Montgomery Alabama and through providing legal services to Black Americans who have been wrongfully incarcerated. This is a great organization to donate to if you are looking for changes to our justice system in America.
• The ACLU: The American Civil Liberties Union is an organization that works towards ensuring that everyones rights in America are protected and that everyone is treated equally. They are focused on making sure that the right to protest and free speech are not infringed upon and that our justice system gets the change that it needs. A membership is one way in which you can donate to the ACLU. But if you do not want a membership then you can just donate to them too.
• The NAACP: As a gift for my birthday in June, my mom got me a membership to the NAACP. This organization is one of the oldest civil rights organizations in America and fights for equality as well as civil rights for all. I highly recommend either becoming a member (its $30 for the year) or donating to them so that they can help to continue the movement.

4. Signing Petitions and Protesting: One other way you can get involved if you can’t donate is to donate your time. Right now, there are hundreds of petitions going around on the internet demanding justice for Black Americans in general or for specific people who have been killed by police. One big organization that works really hard to get petitions around is The Grassroots Law Program. Once you sign one of their petitions, you are put onto a mailing list where they send you other petitions you can sign to help the movement. Also, signing the petition is not a one and done thing. Once you sign a petition from the Grassroots Law Program, they send you an email with specific action steps that you can take such as making phone calls to lawmakers or writing emails. This extra step takes it from just signing your name to actually making change happen which feels really good.

If you prefer not to sign petitions, then please get out and protest or march. Right now, there are hundreds of protests going on demanding justice for Breonna Taylor and Black Americans. I have participated in a few protests with a sign and my Just Mercy shirt on and it makes you feel really empowered after you do it. If you just search up “protests this weekend in____(whatever city you are in)” different events will pop up and you can choose which one works best for you, it is that simple.

5. Voting!: I think I mentioned this in my last post about Black Lives Matter but please get out and vote. The Election is roughly a month away and it is crucial that everyone who can vote votes so that we can get the change we desire. Only 60% of eligible voters voted in the 2016 election. We can do better than that. I know this year is unprecedented and it will be hard to get your vote it. But, please do what is best for you be it sending your ballot in by mail or voting in person. If you still need to register to vote or want to check your registration status, here is a link for you.

https://www.vote.org/—- If you click this link it will come up with a page where you can see you voter registration status or just register to vote in general.

Summary:

I know this is a lot of information but I hope it really helps. I hope what I have shown you is that there is not one right or wrong way to get involved as long as you are getting involved. If each of us gets involved in whatever way we can then that is great and a step that we have taken in the right direction. I am tired of reading in the news about innocent Black Americans being killed by police. I am tired of reading in the news that the cops in my hometown harassed a Black business owner. I am just tired of it all. So please, get involved in whatever ways you can. If we all work together and realize that we have a serious problem, then we can make meaningful change.