BLACK LIVES MATTER.
This week I’m not releasing a podcast episode. Instead, in the 40 minutes you would have spent listening to this podcast, I urge you to read, listen, donate, sign, email, call, petition, protest.
As a white person, I have benefitted from and upheld a system that is built on racial exploitation and inequality. This is a situation that white people have created, and we must put in the work to change the system.
To my Australian listeners: This is not just an American issue. Australia has its own terrible history of systemic oppression and violence against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. I urge you to take this opportunity to reflect on the systemic racism in our own culture and history. This always was, and always will be, Aboriginal Land.
To my white listeners: this is an opportunity to step up and take action. White silence is white violence: talk to your white friends, family and peers about these issues. These conversations will be uncomfortable, but they’re supposed to be. WE must do the work – people of colour should not have to spend their time and energy and emotional labour teaching us about racism and how to be a better ally. The resources are out there. You can self-educate.
Down below is a suggested lists of resources, organised by action. This is not a comprehensive list, and I encourage you to seek out more resources local to your area.
JUSTICE FOR DAVID DUNGAY JUNIOR
Donate
Australia
Aboriginal Legal Service – provides legal service to Indigenous Australians
Sisters Inside – advocates for the rights of First Nations women and girls in prison
Seed Mob – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people for Climate Justice
Healing Foundation – works with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to help heal the trauma caused by the forced removal of children from their families
Grandmothers Against Removals – grassroots organisation led by Aboriginal grandmothers
NATSIWA – National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women’s Alliance
Bridging the Gap – Foundation for Indigenous health and education
International
The Bail Project – helps combat racial and economic disparities in the bail system by funding people’s bail
LGBTQ Freedom Fund – focuses on posting the bail of LGBTQ+ people
Campaign Zero – campaign to end police brutality
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund – a legal organisation that seeks structural changes in the justice system to eliminate racism
The Loveland Foundation – focuses on helping black women and girls
A list of organisations you can donate to that support black trans people
Sign
Watch
100% of this video’s ad revenue will be donated to causes that support the BLM movement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCgLa25fDHM
Read
(note: in this list, I have only included works that I have read myself)
Fiction
Dear Martin by Nic Stone
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Black Girl Unlimited by Echo Brown
The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Black Is the New White by Nakkiah Lui
Non-fiction
Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington / Nugi Garimara
Growing Up African in Australia edited by Maxine Beneba Clarke
Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia edited by Anita Heiss
Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde
Dark Days by James Baldwin
Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King, Jr.
Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge
More anti-racist reading lists
‘Do the work: an anti-racist reading list’ by Layla F Saad – The Guardian, 3rd June 2020
‘An Antiracist Reading List’ by Ibram X. Kendi – The New York Times, 29th May 2019
Something important to remember
“Don’t just read Black literature in this moment. Read Black lit for the rest of your life. Read and support the work of Black essayists, novelists, poets, today and forever and always. Do NOT make your support conditional on whether or not racism is in the headlines.” – by Ashia Monet – @ashiamonet on Twitter, 2nd June 2020