10 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice

 10 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice

There are varied approaches to ending police violence.                           The best thing to do is to follow your local Black Lives Matter chapter or other local Black-led organization to find out the proposed policy and funding changes in your city or town. Donate to your local BLM chapter, sign up for updates, volunteer, and take action when asked.

Campaign Zero has ten evidence based solutions to address police violence. Contact your city or town government representative(s) and police chief to advocate for these policies.

Within the evidence-based solutions in #2, Campaign Zero has a project called 8Can’tWait, with eight specifie policies to be prioritized to end police violence. The website has a fantastic tool wherein you can see which of the policies your city or town have been enacted. Contact your city or town government representative(s) and police chief to advocate for the policies that have not yet been enacted.

Contact your city or town government representative(s) and police chief to ban no-knock warrants. Louisville, KY banned no-knock warrants after their previous policy allowing no-knock warrants led to Breonna Taylor’s death.

Write to your state representative and senator to end qualified immunity like Colorado recently did Qualified immunity permits government officials performing discretionary functions to be immune from civil suits unless the official violated “clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known.” In recent years, qualified immunity has been successfully used to defend the use of excessive or deadly force by police, like in the Johnny Leija case. Thank you to Claudia S. Murray for the suggestion.

Support a project facilitated by Leap, the Law Enforcement Accountability Project, a fund that empowers activists to change the narrative around the police abuse of Black People. Leap is founded by Ava DuVernay.

Understand and share what “defund the police” really means. It’s about a new, smarter approach to public safety, wherein we demilitarize the police and allocate resources into education, social services, and other root causes of crimes. What we’re doing now isn’t working — There are so many innocent people who have been harassed or killed by the police unjustly, and nearly every Black American has experienced some form of harassment by the police.

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, etc. When you see such a post, call the organization, company, or institution involved to tell them 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 (POC) during an onslaught by a third party, they need to hear from us.

If you or a friend is an educator, buy said friend books that feature POC as protagonists and heroes, no matter the racial make-up of the class. Here are good lists from: Mahogany Books, American Indians in Children’s Literature, Embrace Race, Baby and Blog, NBR, Grassroots Community Foundation, Today’s Parent, and Huff Post. bell hooks, one of the heroes of our time, has authored five children’s books. Buy the books from a Black-owned bookstore. You can purchase educational toys that feature POC, such as finger puppets, Black History.  Flashcards, etc for their classroom. Use these items year-round, not just in February. The racial make-up of students doesn’t matter — kids of every race need to know American history and be exposed to people from different races, religions, and countries. If the friend is interested, buy them for your pal’s classroom. Don’t be shy to ask Facebook friends that you haven’t actually talked to in ten years.

If you or a friend or family member is an educator, watch the video of Neil deGrasse Tyson speaking about his experience as a Black student telling people he wanted to be a scientist and astrophysicist. Tyson’s experience reminds me of a Black friend whose high school teachers tried to dissuade her from taking AP classes, because, with the best of intentions, they thought the AP classes would be “too much” for her. Be an educator who supports and encourages, not one who dissuades. Talk to educators you know about being educators who support and encourage, not educators who dissuade.