And from a purely selfish perspective, when the world feels especially terrible like it has been feeling recently, physically going out and doing something about it feels good, as does meeting and building community with other people committed to social justice.
What I've been doing so far:
(Note - this is a long list of things, but I have slowly added these actions to my life over the past five or six years, and I am not always doing all of these things simultaneously. I don't want anyone to look at this list and think I am spending every waking moment doing all of these things - as you know from reading this blog, I still have plenty of time for other activities.)
- Voting! I mean, duh. It is worth mentioning that we don't just vote in the presidential elections, though - we vote in off-cycle elections too, and we do research in advance so we can be informed in voting for roles like city councilman, state legislators, etc... Those local roles get a lot less attention and a lot fewer votes than the big national ones, but they tend to impact people's day-to-day lives a lot more. Usually about a month before each election, I google something like "Philadelphia ballot November 2015" to get a list of everything that will be on the ballot. Then I search for info on each candidate and ballot initiative in order to make a decision about how to vote for each one- usually Ben does half the research and I do half.
- Attending protests and rallies. I'm not able to go to as many as I like due to the combination of my work schedule and how long it takes to get between locations in the Bay, but I try to go when I can. I've been to the 50th Anniversary March on Washington, various Black Lives Matter protests and vigils back in Philly and here in the Bay, and most recently a Jews Reject Trump vigil (where we got a nice sign that now sits in our front window). I know how I would feel if a group I was a member of was being executed in the street with legal impunity, or had a presidential candidate saying we were less than human and should be treated accordingly, and no one from other groups showed up to protest and demand better. That's why it's important for me to show up as white person to events that publicly decry white supremacy in all its forms. I follow my local Showing Up for Racial Justice group to find out about upcoming actions (they also have a good guide for showing up as a white person at events led by people of color), as well as my local Black Lives Matter group.
- Sidenote: One of my earlier childhood memories is my mom bringing me and my sister along to protest my hometown celebrating it's 250th anniversary with a giant reenactment of a Confederate ball that happened there during the Civil War. I remember understanding why we were there, and feeling both mad that something unfair was happening and proud that we were trying to stop it. I also remember there being almost no other white people there, and wondering why that was since my hometown was majority white, and surely everyone else also knew celebrating our town by reenacting a party for slave owners and defenders of slave owners was wrong, right? I share this story to illustrate both the importance of white people showing up for racial justice, and that bringing kids along can help them feel empowered and internalize values of fairness, justice, and speaking out when you see something wrong is happening. There have been kids of all ages at every protest and rally I have gone to thus far, so their presence is very normal.
- Side sidenote: That ball still gets reenacted annually, although as a private event and not a city government-sponsored one.
- Volunteering. In Philly I volunteered with Big Brothers Big Sisters, since moving to the Bay I've been volunteering with organizations that need more episodic support, since I'm not sure how long we'll live here (the plan is only a few years) and I don't want to form another deep emotional bond with an individual kid that I'll have to leave (although me and my Philly little sister still stay in touch, and I see her whenever I'm back in town). The two groups I've been volunteering with out here are Black Girls Code, since they have a lot of weekend events that need various support roles, and the Bay Area Childcare Collective, which is a collective of mostly white people who provide free childcare for grassroots organizations led by women of color so they can plan and carry out their work while knowing their kids are being well taken care of. It's great because both organizations let me hang out with awesome kids so that the people who should be leading this work can do what they need to do. I found both groups just by googling around for Bay Area volunteer opportunities and various keywords that I was interested in (i.e. "youth" and "racial justice"), and then reaching out to the relevant people and asking how I could help.
- Making phone calls when I am asked. For example, most recently the police arrested over a hundred peaceful Black Lives Matter protestors in Baton Rouge (that's where this now-iconic photo came from), so organizers asked people to call the jail where they were being held to ask why they were arrested and demand their safe treatment and immediate release. Making this type of call is probably the quickest and easiest thing you can do, and you don't even have to get dressed or stand up to do it. I find out about these requests by following organizers like DeRay Mckesson and Brittany Packnett on Twitter.
- I also consider speaking up about racial justice to be a form of showing up, but I've written a separate post about that already, so I won't go over it again here.
- The biggest thing I want to do is figure out how to get more involved in pushing for legal changes beyond just voting. That means using Campaign Zero's take action tool to figure out which of my representatives to contact about supporting what legislation that works to end police violence, and then contacting them about it and continuing to contact them about it until it passes.
- I'm also considering taking unpaid leave in October to go canvass for HRC and/or a get out the vote campaign, if the polls are looking anywhere near close. I just can't imagine telling my kids that a straight up white supremacist was running for president (and won??), and I didn't do anything about it besides feel anxious and really hope he doesn't win.
