Life is heavy lately. I was already worn out by all things pandemic and now I’m grieving about all of the recent events (and hundreds of years of events) towards our Black community. There was yet another murder this weekend – another one! My brain is spinning because I want to do all of the things to educate myself, my children, and figure out what I can (realistically) do to help end systematic racism in our country (and world). It is such necessary work.
Here are some helpful resources I’ve found been directed to:
+ Podcasts which have done a great job about covering current events: Code Switch, Pantsuit Politics, The Daily, First Name Basis
+ One of my favorite books of all time, which has changed the way I think about our justice system: Just Mercy
+ The book I read with our church group. It led to some good discussions: White Awake
+ Next on my to-read list because of all of the recommendations: White Fragility (although I have also heard that we should be buying/reading more books on racism by Black authors, and the author of this book is White)
+ Next on my to-watch list because it’s been highly recommended by friends: 13TH
+ The book I purchased for my kids because a friend said it was awesome: A Kids Book About Racism
+ A great resource for parents (with very helpful book lists & articles) that is worth supporting via Patreon: The Conscious Kid (their Instagram is also excellent with a lot of free resources)
+ How I’m purchasing books to support local businesses (specifically Semicolon in Chicago, Chicago’s only black-woman owned Bookstore): Bookshop
+ The organization I heard about when I read ‘Just Mercy’ years ago, and which I have been donating to ever since: Equal Justice Initiative
+ An article worth reading: When All Of This Is Over: On The Narrative Of Protest And Progress
+ A post on systemic racism (race & Christianity) by Tim Keller: Racism and Corporate Evil – A White Guy’s Perspective
While I know this list is far from complete, it’s my starting point and I hope it provides you with some ideas to keep moving forward! This movement is a marathon, not a sprint, and if every week we just do a bit more, we’ll get there. (There: equality. peace. permanent change. the end of systemic racism.)
