Black Lives Matter. The state of the world has me heartbroken. I struggle with what to say and how to say it, but I also realize that saying nothing and staying silent is not the answer. While I am a person of color, I grew up in a place where most of my peers were white and had similar socioeconomic backgrounds. I’m not sure I realized I was different until I was in middle school. I went to a bigger school with more kids…kids I didn’t know. I remember sitting in a circle one day with a group of kids and we were all supposed to go around and say one thing about each person, whether we knew them or not. One girl, Amanda, who I didn’t know, said something not nice about me. To this day, I cannot recall what she said, all I remember was how it made me feel. I’m in middle school and never felt like this before. It was awful. Luckily, I had another girl, Tearah, stand up for me and say something to the effect of Amanda, that is not nice. We don’t judge people we don’t know. That encounter with Amanda was the first of many instances that would happen to me later in life. Some were more traumatizing than others. I’ve been told I’m disgusting. A senior citizen commented on the street that he hoped I was paying into his social security. I’ve been asked where I’m from repeatedly, as New Jersey was an unacceptable answer. But, I’ve never felt my life threatened or felt it was unsafe to go places alone because of what I looked like.
I know what happened to George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and so many others is wrong. What can I do to stop it? I want to learn what I can do to make this better, to be more aware, to be more educated. I want to teach my child to be better, to make this world better and to be anti-racist, to be an ally. How do I do it?
I’m committed to listening and learning. My instagram feed has been full of ideas on where to start and how to help, from physically joining a peaceful protest, to donating to a bail fund and everything in between. I’m taking a step to share books that were recommended to understand why we need to change, how to change and how to teach change to our children. Yes, this is uncomfortable. Sometimes we need to push through that uncomfortable to get to where we need to be. I know reading about it is not enough. It’s a start.
For you:
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Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People by Mahzarin R. Banaji
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White Fragility by Robin D’Angelo
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Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria By Beverly Daniel Tatum
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So You Wanna Talk About Race By Ijeoma Oluo
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How to be an Anti-Racist By Ibram X Kendi
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The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness By Michelle Alexander
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Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America By Ibram X Kendi
For the kids:
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Let’s Talk About Race by Julius Lester
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The Colors of Us by Karen Katz
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The Skin I’m In by Pat Thomas
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We March by Shane W. Evans
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Harriet Tubman by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara
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Martin Luther King, Jr. By Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara
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Rosa by Lisbeth Kaiser
xoxo
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