Stand Up to Inequality: What to Do, Who to Follow, What to Read

To our Black friends, colleagues, and neighbors: we stand with you. Everyone deserves to thrive in their own communities and live in a world free from oppression.

The current climate calls for a deeper understanding of systemic racism and the identification of privilege. Here’s a list of action items including where to donate, what to read, what to watch, and more.

Things to Do

• Check in on your Black friends, family, partners, and colleagues; ask them about the causes that are important to them
• Educate yourself on what it means to be anti-racist
• Call, Tweet, and send messages to your elected state and local officials
• Fact-check the articles you share to prevent the spread of misinformation
• Vote!

Where to Donate

• NAACP Empowerment Programs
• Equal Justice Initiative
• Black Visions Collective
• Black Lives Matter Movement
• Innocence Project
• Fund the Minneapolis Community

Who to Follow

• @blklivesmatter
• @naacp
• @reclaimtheblock
• @shotbycandace - a photographer capturing protests

What to Read

• Anguish and Action - The Obama Foundation
• The Death of George Floyd, In Context - The New Yorker
• Don’t understand the protests? What you’re seeing is people pushed to the edge - Los Angeles Times
• Race Talk: Engaging Young People in Conversations about Race and Racism - Anti-Defamation League
• So You Want to Talk About Race - Ijeoma Oluo
• The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration - Isabel Wilkerson
• How to Be an Antiracist - Ibram X. Kendi
• The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness - Michelle Alexander

What to Watch

• The Hate U Give - a film adaptation of a novel portraying race in America
• Becoming - a documentary chronicling Michelle Obama’s book tour
• When They See Us - a documentary about the Central Park Five
• 13th - a documentary exposing racial inequality in the criminal justice system
• Hidden Figures - a film about three African-American women who were the brains behind one of NASA’s greatest operations 

What to Sign

• Official Petition for Breonna Taylor 
• Justice for Ahmaud Arbery Petition
• Justice for George Floyd Petition

Organizations We Admire

• Texas A&M University - launched $100 million fund to help its 11 campuses reflect the state demographics
• Tulane University - President Michael A. Fitts commits $2.5 milion to support students of color on campus
• Clarkson University - created a George Floyd Memorial Scholarship Fund
• University of Virginia - changed its logo over links to slavery

This list is in no way exhaustive. If you have recommendations you’d like to share, please share them with me by emailing laura.rives@hannonhill.com.