As the protests and social reckoning continue around the country, some sincere white people are asking “what can I do to help change the situation?”. This is borrowed from Corinne Shutack’s article 75 Things White People Can Do For Racial Justice.
If none of those activities suit your liking, try some of these. Use your white privilege, yes, that same benefit that your ancestors had that was rooted in the European colonialism that has you in the ‘A Section’ of American life:
Find out how slavery, the Civil War, and the Jim Crow era are being taught in your local school.
Advocate that history is taught correctly and certain parts are not skipped over or barely mentioned.
Advocate that many voices be used in the study of history. Is the school teaching about post-Civil War convict leasing, the parent to our current mass incarceration system?
Talking about slavery alone, is your high school showing images such as Gordon’s scourged back, a slave ship hold, and an enslaved nurse holding her young master?
Are explorers, scientists, politicians, etc who are black and brown people discussed?
Are male and female authors who are POC on reading lists?
Are Japanese internment camps being discussed?
Is history explained correctly in history books? As an example of a severe failure to teach the reality of slavery and its ramifications, check out image 1 and image 2 .
There are a lot of great resources out there with a little googling, like PBS’s resources for teaching slavery, this POC Online Classroom blog, Teaching for Change, and The National Association for Multicultural Education.
The bottom line is that it is time for honorable white people of conscious to step up and take charge and work to eliminate the scourge of bigotry and racism in the United States—if you want a country that carries out the original meaning of its creed.
Be pro-active, We—black, brown, and oppressed people are so very tired…..
