Have to do better

This is an incomplete list of todos and resources that I’m currently working with as a white woman trying to do better in how I approach race and to truly understand the privilege that I’m afforded every day. I’ve come across most of the contents of this post via tweets by friends and people I would like to be friends with.

These are shorter resources and reference points I’ve found useful already.

• “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” by Peggy McIntosh, found via Lauren Michele Jackson’s Slate article “What’s Missing From ‘White Fragility’”
• This thread outlining 10 steps to non-optical allyship by Mireille Cassandra Harper
• Save the Tears: White Woman’s Guide by Tatiana Mac
• The Clapback Chest from the BSA, a useful search tool for arguing against dumb and sometimes offhand racist comments
• This thread by Paul Gorski from the Equity Literacy Institute on how attitudes and behaviors of white activists can cause burnout in antiracist activists of color (from research conducted with human rights attorney Noura Erakat)
• This thread by sci-fi author Claire Willett on the catastrophically harmful effect of COINTELPRO, the secret FBI program created by J. Edgar Hoover which led to the death of charismatic young activist Fred Hampton and the general perception amongst white people that Black anger is a threat
• What black America means to Europe, a Guardian article by Gary Younge, a British Guardian journalist who spent 12 years as a correspondent in the US

These are a few of the books or texts I would like to but have not yet read. If I came across them somewhere like Twitter or elsewhere, I’ve also provided a link to that original source.

• “While I Yet Live”, a collection of poetry by Gboyega Odubanjo (origin)
• “How To Argue With A Racist” by Adam Rutherford (origin)
• “Cross-Cultural Design” by Senongo Akpem (origin)
• “Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race” by Reni Eddo-Lodge (origin)
• “Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates (origin)
• “So You Want to Talk About Race” by Ijeoma Oluo (origin)
• “Heavy” by Kiese Laymon (origin)
• “How to be Less Stupid About Race” by Crystal M. Fleming (origin)
• “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander (origin)
• “War Against The Panthers: A Study Of Repression In America” by Huey P. Newton
• The COINTELPRO records in the FBI Vault online: “COINTELPRO was later rightfully criticized by Congress and the American people for abridging first amendment rights and for other reasons” (“other reasons” is doing a *lot* of heavy lifting in that sentence)

I don’t have kids but if I did, I would probably refer to this list of books to teach white children and teens how to undo racism.

I haven’t taken part in a protest but would like to recommend “A Guide to On/Offline Protester Privacy” by the Open Source Researchers of Color (OSROC) for those that are or will.

Since we haven’t protested, we’re donating. This is the combined fund we recently donated to: Split a donation between 70+ community bail funds, mutual aid funds, and racial justice organizers. For our next donation, we’re going to check out double yourdonation.info, a list of people that are fundraising and can double donations through corporate donation matching made available by their workplaces.

Since we’re SF residents as of about 36 hours ago, we’re going to use this searchable list of Black-owned restaurants in the Bay Area from the Chronicle for take away (thanks to Sam for finding it). See also DINE.BLACK for a list of Black-owned eateries throughout the US. If we were still in London, I might refer to this list.

The hardest but probably most important part of all this is the long term plan, step 10 from the thread on non-optical allyship. How do you ensure you’ll stick to the research and work after things have died down and it is no longer in the forefront of your consciousness as a white person? I’ve set a reminder for two months from now to check in with myself, we’ll see how it goes.

I’ve barely scratched the surface. If you have reading suggestions or anything that you think might be relevant, please share with me by emailing me at mail@piperhaywood.com.